PUBLIC SAFETY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 187, 6 May 1941, Page 6

PUBLIC SAFETY

Necessity For Emergency Wartime Measures

HOLDING OF ILLEGAL PUBLIC MEETINGS

The necessity for wartime emergency regulations to safeguard the interests of the country was stressed by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in his address to the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court session in Wellington yesterday morning. They should be obeyed by every decent citizen, he said. In times like the present the least the country could expect fiom its citizens was that they should be law-abiding. The Chief Justice’s remarks were made when he drew the attention of the grand jury to charges relating to the Emergency Regulations brought against eight persons.

“You will think it extraordinary and a very strange commentary on conditions of the present day when 1 tell you that of the 19 cases on the list there are no fewer than eight charges relating to offences against the Emergency Regulations,” he said. “Nobody likes emergency regulations, but the times, and the dangers of the times, have to be considered, and in times like these emergency regulations are essential.

- “In each of these case's the accused person is charged with holding or conducting a prohibited meeting, and there are also charges against two ac eused of publishing subversive statements.

“Each of these eight persons is a member of a society called the Christian Pacifist Society,” added the Chief Justice, “and these eight members apparently claim the right to bold and in other ways to promulgate their views and objects. That may be all right in ordinary times, but at present it is illegal to hold such meetings and to. publish subversive statements.”

He referred to the form of covenant which members of the society entered into, and to a document relating to the calling of public meetings'in the Trades Hall, Wellington. Duty of Citizens. The Emergency Regulations, which were formed by a constituted authority in a democratic country for the' safety of the State, should be obeyed by every decent citizen so long as they were in operation, he said. The least the country should be entitled to expect from its citizens in times like the present was that they should be law abiding. The regulations- provided that publie meetings could be prohibited if they were considered likely to be injurious to the public safety, that no person must encourage such meetings, that any person conducting such a meeting could be arrested without warrant, and that the powers of the Commissioner of Police could be delegated to another officer. It was known that the society had held publie meetings every Friday night. The attitude of the accused persons was that, despite police interference, they would continue to hold such meetings. But they did not get far with their intentions, because, as soon as each began to speak publicly, be was arrested.

The Chief Justice expressed the view that the grand jury should have no difficulty in finding a prima facie case against each accused, in which case true bills should be returned.