BRITISH “WITCHES”

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1936, Page 10

BRITISH “WITCHES”

AN UNREPEALED ACT. More than a million British people are liable at any moment to be prosecuted for witchcraft. A JOU-year-old Act makes every person who professes to be in communication with the dead open to classification as “a rogue and a vagabond.” Throughout the country Spu dualists and workers for religious equity and freedom are pressing lor repeal of the Witchcraft and Vagrancy Acts. These Acts are still being cited in prosecution of mediums: not long ago there was' a charge made against a medium at Hove. Mr Frank Hawken, honorary secretary of the Spiritualists’ Central Council, said to an interviewer:

“Any medium who professes to foretell the future or to be in communication with the dead is open to a charge of witchcraft. Under these ancient laws magistrates are comI oiled automatically to convict. From time to time, especially in the north, charges of witchcraft and fortunetelling are still brought against Spiritualist mediums. In London we have been more fortunate. The last charge of this nature was brought in 1928. “But at the earliest possible moment we are hoping to bring before Parliament what is described as a ‘‘Bill to relieve Spiritualists and mediums from prosecutions under, the Witchcraft and Vagrancy Acts while genuinely exercising their psychic powers in religious practice or scientific investigations.

Mr Hawken pointed out that Spiritualism had at least one million adherents to-day, and that the number was growing every week.

Dr. Nandor Fodor, of the International Institute for Psychic Research, said:

“The present method’ of prosecuting fake mediums by citing Acts which should have been abolished long ago is an appalling anomaly. In pressing for a reform of the law, Spiritualists* are willing to undertake the granting of certificates to bona-fide mediums, and that task would naturally be complicated. But, in any evenl, there would be adequate protection for the Public if the police were to deal with malpractices under a charge of false pretences.”