ANTI-SHOUTING AND ITS EFFECTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 44, 15 November 1917, Page 6

ANTI-SHOUTING AND ITS EFFECTS

Sir,—l have only just returned from' }. England (whore, as here, aati-treating i laws are on the Statute 13ook—but un- « observed, aleo as is the case J .little purpose except to induce otherwise j respectable citizens to break the law), | and am rather astonished, also rather = amused, to find that—notwithstanding: \ Hie tot'.il failure of restrictive legislation. J in any country to effect itti object—you' should have jjone one further and im-1 posed the G o'clock closing on an ap- Y parenlly apathetic majority of voters. ' Tho more immediate objeot of this short note, however, is to draw attention r to the grossly unfair penalties meted.' out to the unfortunate bartender who-j, may happen to be caught. It has always, bueii ii ivell-cstablished principle of British law that no person snould suffer two. convictions for the same offence, and! (apart from the fact, that these convictions are applied to only a few individu- ; als, when all are "guilty," if ono cam , apply such a torm to such an offence),' tho fact that a bartender automatically f is deprived of his or her living lor sis I months should, in my opinion, he more, tlinu sufficient, without the concomitant initiction of a line whjch they can. ill auorulo pay. Writing'ae a lawyer, I am. not indeed euro that the whole of this recent licensing legislation would not be declared ultra vires if taken, on appeal to th'o Privy Council, seeing that, 60 far, no part of the Empire ie under martial law, and Orders-m-Council do not, therefore, supersede Magna Chorta or the Habeas Corpus Act. When I addTuat I know myself of instances in, which eminently suitable and patriotic; women have been refused service with, the Defence Department, whikt dozens of others (whoee reputation, to put it mildly, in not on as high a plane) have been accepted, it will be apparent that a little public ventilation of this BUbject is much needed. The action of returned soldiers (men. if, prior to joining, they happened to be policemen) in using a military uniform and a returned badge to entrap unwary women (who, many of them, have brothers serving their country at tho. ironic should, in my opinion, come under i review by the exeoutive of that aesocia-j am, oto fesT w _ MuNTON _ G.P.O. Box 1030.