BAIL NOT ASKED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 308, 28 December 1940, Page 9

BAIL NOT ASKED.

,— ■» TRIBUTE TO HONESTY. SUBVERSION AXLEGED. (By Air.) SYDNEY, December 21. A tribute to the honesty of two men who appeared in Central Summons Court on political charges was paid by the magistrate when at the end of the first day's hearing he refused the police's request for heavy bail and allowed the men to go without any, remarking: "I feel sure that these men will be here to answer the charge to-morrow." Bail had previously been fixed at £500 each. The two men—Horace Ratliff, 40, labourer, and Max Thomas, 29, labourer —are charged with possession of articles with a view to influencing public opinion in a manner likely to be prejudicial to official prosecution of the war. Articles mentioned in the charges include a typewriter, • duplicating machine, various pamphlets, including "The Coming War in the Pacific" and "The Imperialist War Spreads," and other documents alleged to be instructions issued by the Communist party on various matters such as conduct before the police and courts and including particulars of a competition for new members in which points were to be awarded on a scale which, for example, rated a munition worker as a more valuable member than a labourer. Police evidence was that the men were surprised at work in a cottage which they had rented at Como, on George's River, a few miles out of Sydney. Constable Patrick John Byrne, of the Military Police Intelligence, in evidence admitted that on instructions he had once joined the Communist party to investigate its activities under the name of Raasmussen. Thomas: You were spying on the working class? Constable Byrne: I refuse to say J was spying on the working class. I was making certain investigations.