“FIFTH COLUMN”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1940, Page 3

“FIFTH COLUMN”

SHORTHAND WRITER REPORTED TO POLICE. I had no idea until the other day, writes a correspondent of the “Mancheste Guardian,” that the use of shorthand in public might be associated with “fifth column” activity. But so it was. I used the time in a long tram journey into Manchester to make some memoranda in Pitman’s hieroglyphics on some odd pieces of paper. Shortly before the journey's end a constable boarded the car and, sitting beside me, suggested that I had been taking shorthand notes. No need to deny it; the notes were produced, and, as the constable regarded them with uncomprehending eye, I explained their meaning. I gave him unimpeachable references. He supposed I had my identity card with me, which was true, and having told me how I had come to be a suspicious character he went away satisfied. A lady, it appeared, travelling part of the journey behind me had noticed the shorthand and drawn a wrong and unjustifiable conclusion, and had rung up the police about it. To- be interrogated, even in the friendliest manner, on the top of a tram-car by a policeman is not a pleasant experience for an innocent citizen, but in justice one observation must be made. The lady promptly reported her suspicions to the police. She might simply have told her neighbour over the garden fence that evening. And if I had indeed been a "fifth columnist" that would have been useless.