WELSH EXECUTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 22, 27 January 1928, Page 7

WELSH EXECUTIONS.

T. P. O'Connor Supports

Workers' Protest.

INTENSE FEELING AROUSED.

(Eeccivcd 1 p.m.)

LONDON, January 28.

The visit to the prison of the aged mother of Daniel Driscoll, who with Edward Rowlands has been refused a reprieve of his death sentenco the murder of David Lewis, the wellknown footballer, and her farewell to her son in the condemned coll, caused remarkable scenes outside the Cardiff gaol.

As she was leaving the prison a great crowd surged round the grief-stricken woman in their efforts to shake her hand. It was only with difficulty that she reached a taxi-cab.

Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., states that he has received a telegram from the Liverpool trade unionists ask in g him to call a general stoppage of work on Thursday if the decision not to grant the men a reprieve is not altered. Mr. O'Connor says he has replied as follows:—"I

cannot but person

ally approve even Mr. T. P. O'Connor a general stoppage of work if it will stop what I consider to be a judicial murder."

The Roman Catholic community is arranging for the rosary to be recited outside the prison at the time of the execution as a dramatic last-minute effort to secure the commutation of the sentences.

Nine members of the jury have signed a memorial which will be rushed to the Homo Office this morning. This states that the jury were influenced by an allegation that the men were members of a gang, and that the jurymen think two lives should not be forfeited for one.

Masses for the doomed men will be said in many Roman Catholic churches in Wales.

Referring to the jurymen's deputation in connection with the Cardiff murder, the Home Office says it is a fixed and necessary rule that individual views of jurymen must not be allowed to influence the exercise of the Royal prerogative. The mercy of the jurymen may support an appeal for mercy like the rest of the public, but once a unanimous verdict is given individual jurors cannot qualify it.—(A. and N.Z. and Sydney "Sun.")