WHIST DRIVE SEQUEL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1934, Page 8

WHIST DRIVE SEQUEL

ORGANISERS’ NIGHT IN CELLS. LONDON, July 29. Two meh who had to spend a night in the cells because regulations prevented them from being released after 10 p.m., were freed from Cardiff prison yesterday. The incident was a sequel to a. game of whist, and the two men concerned were Albert Rex Berry and Clarence Maidment. Each had been fined 10/- on Friday for permitting and abetting in a whist drive at May Street Institute and Social Club, of which Berry is secretary. In addition Berry was ordered to pay £l5 costs, and Maidment £1 costs, and the Recorder' ordered that they should be kept in custody until the money was paid. As the banks were closed and the men could not secure the ready money, they were driven to Cardiff Gaol in a prison van, despite a protest by Berry. Before ten o’clock, the money was collected among friends, who presented themselves at the prison gates, but the chief officer told them that the regulations forbade any release after ten p.m. When released yesterday, Berry said: “I very much feel the indignity I have suffered. I was treated as a criminal and had to undergo the shame and ordeal of prison routine. “Immediately on my admission my finger prints were taken and my own clothes removed from me, and after 1

a bath and a medical inspection, I was diessed in prison garb. I spent a sleepless night in a dark cell thinking of my two little children who were waiting for me at home.” Berry also complained that, while money was available, in the banks, the authorities would not accept a cheque to secure his release.