FOR MEMBERS' USE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 11

FOR MEMBERS' USE

COMMUNIST LITERATURE

COURT CASE CONCLUDED

-.iter hearing the submissions of counsel in connection with the charges relating to tnc possession for sale or distribution of books which is held by the police to advocate violence or express a seditious intention, Mr. ;E. Page, S.M., said in the -U.-ig'stnite s Court yesterday afternoon that lie would take time to consider his decision. The defendants concerned did not "ivc evidence. Mr. 11. H. Cornish, who "appeared for two of them, Richard-Griffeu and -A ilham Murphy, submitted in the first place that the Court would approach with extreme caution any invasion of the ordinary right of free speech . and discussion. Consideration,'no doubt, would also be given to the fact that conditious had changed since the coming into force oi tbe War Regulations Act, 1920, under which the charges were laid. It was regrettable, he ventured to submit, that the Act should be kept on the Statute Book, but tor that no Court was responsible. The regulations referred- to- "selling" or '•distributing," and his submission in regard to the two words was that they reierred to the sale or distribution to a third party. The distribution or circulation among a group of men of literature of the nature forming the subject of the charges -men who were interested in"world-wide movements—did not . come within' the sp-!r _~ ? x t!'e re Su!ati°ns even' though it might be'contended it Was within the let-' Jer._ Constable Deakin had' professed to be interested m the same'problems-as the defendants and had been sold - certain £_ s* ,-He- nad sailed under false colours:' The documents, continued Mr. Cornish, were simply an attack on private property and capitalism. Certain- observations were made, but he contended they were not seditious. They were predictions to-day we were living in a time of pro-' tound peace. Th'e effect of the publications was not that which would-be caused by the falling of a match into gunpowder but more the.falling of a match into a' quiet pond. The. defendants were simply interested in which was going- on in the world. If it were held that the publications contained infiammatorv articles' tending to cause riots, disturbances, etc., the defendants would be guilty of sedition, but he submitted that nothing would be tound in the books which would lead to such a result. - i .]Slr*„:E^, J* "v". James held that the position oi Gordon Edward Munro, for whom he appeared, was different from that of the other defendants. Counsel submitted that there was not sufficient evidence against Munro for the Magistrate to enter a conviction. Mr.-P. S. K. Macassey,-who prosecuted disagreed with Mr. James's contention. He thought that the evidence clearly showed that Munro was, one of. the Communist r °-. U rP' •„ Wl. th regar<i to- the: submission of Mr.-Cornish regarding the sale of the books, Constable Deakin, a. stranger to the defendants, had been given a number of books and had also bought some. The account books also gave a list of the books that had been sold. The fact that Deakin &"- ..een ?ble.-.to get the books showed that the party did not limit- their sale to its own members. . There: could be no doubt, he submitted, that.the books were seditious within the meaning of the 'reflations. • • ' " .