AGITATOR SENT TO PRISON.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20729, 14 December 1932, Page 11

AGITATOR SENT TO PRISON.

* INCITING OF DISCONTENT. P WOMAN MAKES SCENE IN COURT. (CHITED PRKS3 ASSOOATIOH— BY ILXCTMC raUBORATH—COPTBIGKT) LONDON, December 12. Sidney Job Elias was «*ntenced to - two years' imprisonment. Mr Justice - Charles' declared that he was oiire that I tho jury would agree that the caw -had 3 been free from eplitical bias. Great t Britain's policy was to allow people to " express any views and advocate any r«3 volution they wished, provided they refrained from inciting others to disorder b and violence. J Elias had admitted that the hunger , march was aimed not at drawing atten- . tion to troubles bravely borne, but at . inciting the masses to struggle against the Capitalist State. Demonstrations requiring police intervention were unlawful. , r _ ~ _. , Passing sentence, Mr Justice Charles - added, "The jury has rightly convicted - Elias. The Unemployed Workers » Movement interests workers only, and , because the British worker is honest I and law-abiding, not one in a thousand . is led astray by» the activities which i Elias prosecuted at the behest of Mos- ' cow. The maximum sentence is far too » short." f A well-dressed woman shouted, ' How . dare you abrogate to yourself the right > to speak for the workers. To Hell with Capitalist justice!" [Elias, chairman of the Unemployed "Workers' Movement, was alleged to have written a letter from Moscow, . which he was visiting, urging his co- - workers to "fight the polke terror and n agitato for tho chief's dismissal." He L was charged with inciting two other men to cause discontent, dissatisfaction, and ill-will botwen the different classes of his Majesty's subject*, and to create public disturbances against 7 the police. Tho charge arose out of the hunger march of early November.]