POLICE METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 9

POLICE METHODS.

RECENT INQUIRY. Further Commission To Be Set Up. MAJORITY REPORT ACCEPTED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) 1 " July 20. The Ho ; of - Commons to-day •considered the reports of the tribunal which in quired into the interrogation by the police at Scotland Yard of Miss Irene Savidge, following the dismissal of the Hyde Park case against her and Sir Leo Money. The tribunal delivered two reports, a majority report signed by Sir John Eldon Banks, a former judge, and Mr. J. J. Withers, M.P. (Con., Cambridge University) and a minority report signed by Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith, M.P. (Lab., Keighley). The majority report expressed the view that while no coercion was used in the interrogation, which was in accordance with the usual police practice, the practice should be amended so that when the character of the witness interrogated was involved he or she should be duly informed beforehand of the nature of the interrogation and of its possible consequences. The minor : ty report, which expressed dissatisfaction with the whole manner ol' the interrogation, recommended an exhaustive inquiry into the methods of police administration. Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, stated during the debate that the Government was bound to accept the findings of the majority report, but he had decided to appoint a Royal Commission to which every point raised in the minority report would be fully referred. Meanwhile he h. i id given instructions amending the police procedure in the way suggested in the majority report. The majority report was accepted by 211 votes to 63.