JUDGE & GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1943, Page 3

JUDGE & GENERAL

HEAD-ON COLLISION IN HAWAII. CIVIL & MILITARY POWERS IN DISPUTE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) HONOLULU, August 26. The military Governor of Hawaii, Lieutenant-General Richardson, was yesterday fined 5000 dollars for contempt of court by Judge Metzger, of the Federal Court. Today, however, General Richardson issued a general order positively banning further action in the case.

General Richardson was held in contempt for his failure to produce in the court two United States citizens of German extraction who had been interned since the attack on Pearl Harbour and who had issued writs ol habeas corpus.

General Richardson prefaced his order today with the statement + hat a general order has been issued to eliminate interference with the military in the performance of their duties for the defence and security of Hawaii. The order makes any violation by Junge Metzger or anyone else subject to five years’ gaol and a fine of 5000 dollare. It gives the Provost Judge power to try any civilian judge or member of a civilian court for violation of the order. Judge Metzger, commenting on General Richardson’s order, said: “The Stars and Stripes still fly overhead, and the Constitution will be there when the dawn breaks.”

The case is regarded as a test of power between the military and civil authorities in Hawaii. It is expected it will have an important bearing on 300 persons of Japanese ancestry and a score of Germans who are being held incommunicado by the military.