SUBVERSION CHARGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 26, 30 July 1940, Page 13

SUBVERSION CHARGE

PROBATION GRANTED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 29. As a result of a speech made by him as chairman at an election meeting of the Communist candidate for Auckland West on May 8 in Renall Street Hall, Ponsonby, Douglas James Morey was charged before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury in the Supreme Court with having made a subversive statement infringing the Public Safety Regulations. The accused defended himself and insisted that the charge against him should include the whole text of his speech and not merely excerpts. The accused requested a test of the shorthand reporter who took a note of his speech, Brian A. Snowdon. The jury tonight brought in a verdict of guilty after a long retirement. The jury added a strong recommendation to mercy on the ground that the expressions were uttered to a very small audience and during a political campaign. The Judge said there were factors which distinguished the case from a deliberate attempt to influence a large ■public audience. Further, the situation ■was not so serious then as it had since become. He released the prisoner on "probation for a term of three years. He also required the accused to pay £25 towards the cost of the prosecution within three months.

EDUCATION SCHEME

SURVEY OF RESULTS TO

DATE

In an outline of the work being done in the preliminary education of Air Force trainees, the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) said that although the scheme had been in operation only since the beginning of the year, nearly 500 men had already completed their educational course and of these less than 10 per cent; had failed to measure up to the standard required. These men were being given a slightly extended educational course in order to enable them to do so. At the present time a total of 2249 men _ were undergoing educational training either in classes or by correspondence. Of these, 1166 were in classes and 1083 were on a correspondence course. Of the whole group, 1290 had been selected provisionally as pilots or observers, and 959 as. gunners. These classifications were, of course, contingent upon a satisfactory completion of their educational course. Since his previous statement, the Minister added, the necessary arrangements for a course of signal training had been completed. He paid a tribute to the keenness and enthusiasm of the instructors provided by the Post and Telegraph Department. The Director of Educational Services, Mr. E. Caradus, had already had an opportunity of visiting a number of these classes in various towns in the Dominion and had reported to him his extremely favourable impression of the work being done. He felt satisfied, from his own knowledge of the possibilities'and from the reports which had reached him, that this would be a valuable addition to the airman's preliminary training. Some 65 signalling classes were now in operation throughout the Dominion in 36 different centres. The arrangements which it was hoped to make with the National Broadcasting Service had now been completed, .and from Monday, August 5, classes in morse signalling would be broadcast from 2YC with rebroadcasts from IYX and 4YO. In this way it was hoped that, not only the men in larger centres, but also those in country districts would be able to get the necessary signal training. He felt sure that the estimate of eight words a minute both ways, originally set as the standard to be aimed at in connection with this preliminary instruction, would be exceeded by a very large number of men in training long before they went on to the Ground Training School at Levin.