THREE MEN GUILTY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 190, 9 May 1941, Page 9

THREE MEN GUILTY

Charges Against Christian

Pacifists

SUPREME COURT TRIALS

Supreme Court trials against members of the Christian Pacifist Society, charged with breaches of the Public Safety Emergency Regulations, 1940, were continued in Wellington yesterday before the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers). Verdicts of guilty were returned against Arthur Herbert Carman, bookseller, aged 38, of attempting to publish a subversive state ment, and John Henderson Woodley, schoolteacher, aged 21, and David William Silvester, clerk, aged 28, each of attempting to conduct a prohibited meeting. In remanding them for sentence till this morning, the Chief Justice intimated that there was a possibility of sentences not being pronounced till next week.

Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., with him Mr. W. R. Birks, conducted the prosecution. None of the accused was represented by counsel. Carman, whose evidence was concluded just before the Court adjourned the previous afternoon, addressed the jury yesterday morning. He said his motives were only toward the best interests of the community. Were the members of the society passivists, they would find “funk holes” and hide behind their wives and children in order to escape war service and’ the condemnation of the public. •

Though accused appeared very sincere in his beliefs, it might be possible that he had been moved by vanity and conceit, said the Chief Justice in his summing up. He recalled that the previous day, when he asked accused if he would undertake to refrain from taking part in the activities of the society, he had replied that to agree to such a proposal would be to renounce Christianity. A corollary of that statement, said the Chief Justice, was that the vast majority of people in New Zealand had renounced Christianity. The jury was absent 20 minutes considering its verdict.

Case Against Woodley.

The evidence for the Crown in the trial of Woodley was that accused began to address the public in Manners Street, Wellington, on the night of March 14. Superintendent Lopdell asked him if he was speaking on behalf of the Christian Pacifist Society,, and upon accused replying in the affirmative. he was informed that the meeting was prohibited. Accused endeavoured to continue his address, whereupon be was arrested.

In his defence, accused said that be was standing trial merely because he was conscientiously trying to, do his part in upholding the principles of democracy and free speech. Had the police allowed him to continue speaking, he submitted, none of his subsequent remarks could have been interpreted as subversive, or likely to cause public disorder. Accused was not charged with being a Christian Pacifist Society member, or with holding any particular views or doctrines, but simply with disobeying a law made to safeguard the interests of the public, said the Chief Justice, in his summing up. It was idle to say that the law in question was unconstitutional, or ultra vires, because it was not.

The jury gave its verdict after 15 minutes’ deliberation. The facts of the Crown’s case against Silvester were similar to those relating to Woodley’s, except that Silvester was arrested on March 28. Addressing the jury, accused submitted that members of his society should be allowed to preach their doctrines without police interference. If there was a conflict between law and his duty, accused was bound to do his duty, he said. In a short summing up, thp Chief Justice pointed out that the duty mentioned by accused was purely a selfappointed one, and could not be allowed to take precedence over the law. The jury reached its verdict without retiring.