MANY QUESTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 286, 2 December 1936, Page 8

MANY QUESTIONS.

STIR IN AUSTRALIA. MR. PATERSON ASSAILED. "ON WHAT INFORMATION 1 " (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 20. Though the case against Mr. Paterson in regard to the exclusion of Mrs. Freer from Australia was black enough even a week ago, it has altered perceptibly for the worse since. I commented upon it then. One very interesting development is a statement made to the Melbourne Press by Lieut. Dewar. He reveals the remarkable fact that, when his family learned that he had some intention of breaking up his present domestic arrangements, both he and the padre at Lahore' received letters from his wife and her relations in September threatening to have "that woman," whoever she might be, excluded, from the country.

This, as Lieut. Dewar is careful to point out, happened long before Mrs. Freer's name, or anything about her, was known in Australia, either officially or unofficially. As a consequence of the receipt of these letters from Australia "a conference of officers was held at Lahore, and - a cable was sent to Australia advising against any official action being taken in a personal affair." Lieut. Dewar's conclusion that "there was not the slightest doubt that a domestic appeal was the cause of the ban," and that Mr. Paterson excluded Mrs. Freer at a time when he had practically no knowledge of her or her character, is an inference that lias already been drawn by a large majority of those who have followed intelligently and carefully the details of this complicated case.

Mr. Paterson's Information. Last Friday the "Daily Telegraph" declared editorially: "Day by day it becomes clear that there is no information in the possession of Mr. Paterson to warrant the grave statements concerning Mrs. Freer's character which he has made in the House." Mr. Paterson must have been acutely conscious of his deficiencies in' this respect, for he seems to have taken a most extraordinary step to repair them. For during the past week two newspapers, first "Smith's Weekly" and then the "Daily Telegraph," have published disclosures about Mr. Paterson's method of securing evidence against' Mrs. Freer that have given the episode an extremely dramatic character. . The correspondence which has passed between the Minister and Walter Townsend Hunt, who was employed by the Government College at Lahore eight years ago as lecturer in English at various schools and colleges, has already been published in the "Auckland Star."

There is no positive proof that Mr. Paterson's judgment in regard to Mrs. Freer has been seriously affected by the information that he got 'frpm Hunt. Of course, Mrs. M. M. Freer, the central 'figure in .thja <Surious drama, his indignantly repudiated . the suggestion that she and Vera Freer are one, and 'lias expressed her surprise to learn that a Minister of the Crown should lend himself to such dubious • "secret agent" methods as Mr. Paterson. seems to have employed. : . Public Indignation. These disclosures have naturally brought a fresh storm of public indigna- ■ tion about Mr. Paterson's unfortunate head. As the "Daily Telegraph" puts the case against the unhappy Minister: "We now find that, IS days after his:'decree of banishment was announced, he was seeking almost feverishly for any hearsay evidence to support his ease"; and in his anxiety to bolster up his desperate position he made-no attempt to satisfy himself about the character or the antecedents of his informant. The result was that hp got into confidential Relations' with a man who had served sentences for perjury and false pretences, and he even offered on Lis own initiative to suppress his informant's name. In face of all this, Mr. Paterson accuses his critics of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Mr. Lyons declares that he will not set up a committee to investigate tlk» matter, and the Federal Government— according to the "Daily Telegraph"— which returns to the charge to-day, "hopes te shuffle into recess by December 11 and trusts that by the time Parliament meets again the case will be forgotten."

The "Telegraph" condemns this as a despicable and cowardly expedient, .maintaining that, the Freer case will not die but that it is likely to destroythe Government altogether if Ministers continue to ignore it. Even the "Sydnpy Morning Herald" warns Mr. Paterson and his colleagues that they cannot continue to treat lightly and Contemptuously the demand for a complete public investigation of the whole business. For principles of paramount importance to a democratic people are at • stake —the control of Ministers responsible to Parliament, the liberty of the subject, the right of every accused person to be heard in self-defence—and no amount of sophistry or bluff will induce Australians to forget that.