CASE OF SAKLATVALA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 108, 7 May 1926, Page 8

CASE OF SAKLATVALA

DECLINES TO BE BOUND OVER

SENT TO GAOL FOR TWO MONTHS.

(Received 7th May, 2 p.m.) LONDON, 6th May. Mr. S. Saklatvala, M.P. (Communist) appeared at Bow Street on a charge of seditious speech and refused to find two sureties. He was sentenced to two months' imprisonment. His counsel told the Magistrate that the accused had decided to conduct his own defence. Saklatvala admitted the fairness and accuracy of the police report of his speech. He said that his trial was intenCed for the public good, and he 'did not regard it as a personal prosecution. He considered that, in view of the present political outlook, ho should not bo bound over any more than the Premier for the Premier's speech against a section of the community. The Magistrate declared that no reasonable man could doubt that Saklatvala 'a speech was most seditious.

Mr. Sakalatvala was arrested at his home at Highgate, under the Emcr-

gency Powers Act, and charged with making a seditious speech in Hyde Park on Sunday, in which it is alleged he said: "Young men in the forces are our Class, whether Joynson-Hicks likes it or not, or calls it sedition. We have a duty to tell these young men they must lay down their arms and revolt and protect the people, instead of the rogues and fools whom the Union Jack has been harbouring for years." The defendant was remanded until Thursday. He undertook to refrain from further speeches.