PLACED IN CUSTODY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21195, 19 August 1940, Page 13

PLACED IN CUSTODY

ENGLISH LORD OF MANOR TWO CLERGYMEN ARRESTED (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, July 18 A wealthy Dorset Squire and two clergymen have been detained under the defence regulations. They are Captain George Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, of the Manor House, Hinton St. Mary, Dorset, the Rev. H. E. B. Nye, rector of Scampton, near Lincoln, and the Rev. John Vivian Thomas, vicar of Langton-by-Wrag-by, near Lincoln. Captain Pitt-Rivers is Lord of the Manor of Hinton St. Mary, and is a prominent landowner in Dorset and Wiltshire. He served through the last war in the Royal Dragoons, and from .1920 to 1924 was successively private secretary and A.D.C. to the Governor-General of Australia. When the Government’s war-time scheme of evacuation was announced early last year Captain Pitt Rivers assumed leadership of the Dorset campaign of objection to any form of billeting children or refugees on private householders, especially in rural areas. The scheme, he said, was “utterly ridiculous as well as illegal, and was not designed for protection against any real danger.” In 1932 his wife gave birth to a son. Captain Pitt-Rivers announced publicly that there would be no baptism, explaining: “I am an honest pagan.” Some years ago he was prominently associated with a campaign for the abolition of tithe. Captain Pitt-Rivers contested the North Dorset seat at the 1935 general election as Independent Agricultural candidate, the nominee of the North Dorset Agricultural Defence League. He polled 1771 voles and forfeited his deposit. When the windows of Scampton Rectory were broken in 1937 Mr Nye attributed the incident to people who took exception to a pro-German article he had written in the Fascist paper “Action” after a trip to Germany.

Mr Thomas has been at the village of Langton-by-Wragby for five years. He hAs always been outspoken in the pulpit, and his comments on local and national matters have had a mixed reception. _________