A DANGEROUS POWER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 5

A DANGEROUS POWER.

| Is tiie safety of the realm or the lib- [ erty of the subject the higher considj oration? That is really the question in- | volved in a case which has just been j decided by the Court of Appeal in London. In the Defence of the Real'm ■ Act power is given to his Majesty in j Council—i.e., to the Government—‘Ho issue regulations for securing the pubj H( ‘ safety and the defence of the realm. 1 ndcr that authorisation a

regulation was made by which the Home Secretary might, “on the recommendation of a competent naval or mil- | it ary authority, ’ ’ order the internment j of a person “of hostile,origin or assoj ciations, ’ if t-aat seemed to him expe- ! client for securing the public safety. A | certain man of German birth, named j Zadig, who has become a naturalised British subject, was consequently inI turned. It should be said that the regj ulation provides that if anyone thinks j I'e has been unjustly interned ho has j the right to appeal to an advisory i committee, presided over by a person j who holds, or lias hold, high judicial l office. Zadig, however, brought a case into the Hgh Court, claiming that his internment infringed his liberty under the Habeas Corpu s Act, and hi s right to be tried before imprisonment. The Court decided against him., and again in the Appeal. Court the three judges confirm* d the decision. Lawyers are, quite properly, jealous of this right of habeas corpus, and such a high authority a s The Law Journal contends that “Parliament can never have intended to create such an unheard of situation for any British subject, and it is the business of Parliament to redress so intolerable a grievance.”