SIX MONTHS IN PRISON

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 32, 1 November 1932, Page 9

SIX MONTHS IN PRISON

Francis Devanny Sentenced FEDERAL CRIMES ACT CASE Sydney, Oct. 31. Francis Devanny, charged with an offence under the Crimes Act, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. The Magistrate found that the Communist organisation was clearly a body which encourages and advocates the overthrow of the Constitution by revolution. The first case under the Federal Crimes Act, which has for its purpose the suppression of unlawful associations within the Commonwealth, was brought in Sydney at the Central Police Court on October 24 against Francis Harold Devanny, publisher of the “Workers’ Weekly.” The allegation against him was that the issue of July, 1932, contained a solicitation of contributions of money for an unlawful association, namely, the Communist Party of Australia. The summons issued by the Federal Government against Devanny was the longest ever brought before an Australian court. In its effort to prove that he was acting for an unlawful association within the meaning of the Act. the prosecution considered it necessary to trace in its averments the history of the Communist Party of Australia and to show that it is linked, through many organisations, with the great Comintern; in other words, the Communist International —the supreme world authority for Communism. Thus the deposition clerk had to read 69 foolscap sheets of averments comprised in the information against Devanny. The information described the Workers’ Weekly” as the official organ of the Communist Party, and quoted it as saying: “We will expel all Governors and other representatives of British finance and establish in Australia a workers’ and farmers’ republic.” Extracts were quoted from many publications issued m factories, power houses and tramway depots.