HOSTILE TO EMPIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21248, 19 October 1940, Page 9

HOSTILE TO EMPIRE

VIEWS OF JOURNAL SUBVERSIVE CHARGE PROVED DESCRIPTION FROM BENCH By Telegraph.—r:-*><=s As*«.»c7atl«n-> WELLINGTON. Friday • Court to-day of William McCreadv. ; aged 24. taxi-driver, on a charge of ; having in his possession 56 copies of the People’s Voice with a view to facilitating the publication of a subversive statement. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and added a recommendation to mc-rcy. McCready was remanded for sentence. In summing up Mr Justice Ostler suggested to the jurymen that when the\' retired they should read the People’s Voice from cover to cover. When they had done that they would find it professed to be issued by the Ccmmunist Party; that its attitude was that Russia could do no wrong; that it was hostile to the British Empire and all the Empire stood for and to the rule of democracy as established in the framework of our Constitution: that it hated the Labour Government and held it up to obloquy as traitorous to the class it represented; that it bitterly opposed the war effort of New Zealand, and that it described the war as an imperialist war. The paper obviously desired to see the British Empire defeated, said His Honour, although he could not understand why. because if Britain was defeated it seemed to him it would be the end of liberty. The paper professed to be the champion of the rights of trades unions, continued His Honour, who pointed out that the gentlemen who were the trusted trade union leaders in England had, according to our newspapers, repeatedly stated in public that if the Empire were defeated trade unionism would be smashed. Yet the authors of the paper obviously wanted to see Britain defeated. It was questionable whether their professed love of trade unionism was genuine. The paper also admitted that in the past it had been subsidised by foreign money. His Honour then dealt with the meaning of subversion. He said the paper referred to conscription in New Zealand as if it were degrading. He could not understand why, because exactly the same thing went on in Russia. The army of Russia was a conscripted army and the People’s Voice thoroughly approved it. According to the paper it was right for Russia to have a conscript army, but wrong for New Zealand. He thought the jury would be perfectly justified in saying the paper contained subversive statements.