SEDITIOUS ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 6

SEDITIOUS ACT

INCITING TO DISORDER

COMMUNIST SENTENCED

THE HUNGER MAECH

(From '<The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 15th December. Sidney Job Elias, aged 35, described as chairman of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, was sentenced this week to two years' imprisonment for inciting Emrhys Llewellyn ' and Walter H^m^^gton, organiser and secretary of the movement, "to cause discontent and ill-will between different classes of His Majesty's subjects and to create, public disturbances. <■ Mr. Eustace Fulton and Mr. Anthony Hawke prosecuted. Elias, who pleaded not guilty, was defended by Mr. Neil Lawson. .•■'.•' Mr. "Fulton said that the allegation was that in, a series of letters from Eussia Elias incited Hannington and Llewellyn to stir vp # hunger marchers to commit acts of grave disorder, not only in the towns through which they marched, but in London. 'He said that he was unable to explain why it should be necessary for Elias to carry on his work in Moscow. Elias went there toward the end of April last,-and it would appear that he was employed by the Profintern, which was part of the Third International charged with the duty of dealing with working people throughout the ■world. He understood that it was a revolutionary body. . •• ■ Elias occupied part of the premises in Moscow of the Anglo-American,Section, and they were in such control of him, said Mr. Fulton, that he complained that he was unable to, leave Moscow without permission Of the Profintern. EXTRACTS PROM LETTERS. Mr. Fulton then read '.extracts from the letter ofj Elias, including the following:—•;. -.;?'> "Some proposals must be made to our comrades in' Birkenhead and Liverpool on the methods, of fighting the police terror. • ■ ■-■"'.■ "Things seem to,be going well at Birkenhead, Liverpool, West Ham, Stepney, and Croydon. The wave is rising, and we should make it. sweep the country." Mr. Fulton also quoted from a report from Hannington to Elias: "We have at last penetrated into the Teeside area, a very important iron and steel centre. Some big demonstrations have been held there organised by our boys, and last "week there was a battle in the streets with the police.". This indicated, said Mr. Fulton, that Hannington was endeavouring to carry out the instructions he was receiving from Eussia. . ■ ■ • PASSING OF SENTENCE. Mr. Justice Charles, passing sentence, said that one knew from the evidence and from one's own knowledge, to an extent," that the activities of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement were as inimical to the good interests of the working man as anything one could well imagine. "It is only because the British working man is tme."of the most honest and law-abiding of-men in this or any country that not one in 1000 or 2000 is seduced and led' astray by this course Which you endeavoured to make them take at the command, or at the Behest and.direction, of your friends in Moscow. , , :,.. - "The result of your efforts has been disorder, riot, damage in various parts of this land. • ■ : , "This is a misdemeanour,' and the maximum sentence I can pass upon you is, in my judgment, far, far too short. ' "The offence is a serious one. It is an offence which is dangerous to the peaceof this country, «and you-will be kept in prison for two*years." WOMAN INTERRUPTS. Elias made no comment, but a welldressed woman in the privileged seats behind counsel, shouted, "How dare you arrogate to yourself the right to speak on behalf of thp workers, and to perpetrate this frame-up?" Mr. Justice Charles ordered the, woman to be removed from, the Court. As she went she shouted, "To hell with Capitalist justice." ■ - The woman afterwards stated that she was a member of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. Inspector Kitchener had told the Judge' that Elias was by occupation a steel worker. He had not followed that occupation for seven years, but had been a paid official of the Communist party as well as chairman of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. In 1929 he was convicted for throwing missiles through the windows at No. 10, Downing street, and in 1931 was sentenced at Woolwich to a month's imprisonment 'in connection with a speech he had made. Mr. Justice, Charles, in his summing np, said the policy of this country was to allow all people to say without let or hindrance almost what they would as to their views, providing, that in expressing them they did not make use of language calculated to incite others to public disorder or physical violence. FREEDOM OF SPEECH. "Freedbm by all means," said the Judge, "criticism of the Government. You may say if you like that a revolutionary Government would be good. You can say if you ; like, that no Government at all would be good. But if in saying that you use language which advocates or incites to public disorder or physical violence as a means of attaining your views, you have com-, mitted a seditious act. ; "I hope you will agree that political bias is absent from this case. This is a matter which has nothing whatever to do with politics." • It was said that demonstrations were lawful, but demonstrations were not lawful that required police intervention to stop disorder. Mr. Neil Lawson said he wished to move for an arrest of judgment, on the ground that the indictment disclosed no offence punishable by law. The Judge ruled that the form1 of indictment was perfectly correct. A person who incited or solicited another person to commit a misdemeanour was himself a principal. '