ALLEGED SUBVERSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 December 1940, Page 4

ALLEGED SUBVERSION

THREE MEN COMMITTED. [per press association.] AUCKLAND, December 16. Subversion charges laid under the Public Safety Emergency Regulations, and relating to notices posted on poles and walls in Grafton and the city on the night of December 5, were preferred against four men in the Magistrate’s Court. The accused included three carpenters, Henry Joseph Hurman, aged 39, Phillip Leslie Hardcastle, aged 32, and Herbert Henry Swann, aged 31, and a cabinetmaker,

Alec Silverman, aged 27. All the accused were charged with publishing a subversive sticker bearing the words: “No more troops overseas. New Zealand comes first.” Hurman, Hardcastle, and Swann were further charged with possessing pamphlets entitled “Forward,” and paper stickers with a view to facilitating the publication of a subversive statement. The cases were heard separately, that against Hurman being taken first. .Sergeant Holt said he was on special police car duty with Constable Palmer on December 5, and saw Hurman

put a sticker on a post at the intersection of Park Road and Carlton Gore Road, Grafton. Several other stickers, still damp, were found on posts nearby. Some had been placed on Home Guard appeal posters. When searched, Human had more stickers, a damp cloth, copies of a cyclostyled publication, “Forward,” and a book by Karl Marx in his pockets. Witness said Hurman and Silverman were together. As the car drove past them, witness saw Silverman with his hand on “something white” against a power accumulator box, where a recentlyplaced sticker was found when the men were accosted a few minutes la- • tar

J Counsel for Silverman, Mr. Hogben, I submitted‘that there was no case I against him. The Magistrate replied that Silverman and Hurman were .found together, and it would be the (duty of the Supreme Court to decide . their case. Giving evidence againgt Hardcastle, Constable Mathieson said he was with Constable Dallas in Fanshawe Street on December 5, when, two men' came

under suspicion. Ten freshly-damped stickers were found on traffic signs, doors, windows, and poles along the route the men followed. “When they saw us they crossed the road, and we called on them to stop,” witness continued. “Constable Dallas gave chase to Swann. I asked Hardcastle what he had in his pockets, and he demanded to see my warrant. I arrested him, and searched him at police station, finding 38 fresh stickers and 13 copies of ‘Forward,’ two more of which were found in his room when it was-search-

ed.” Electing trial by jury, Hurman, Hardcastle, and Silverman pleaded not guilty, and were committed to the Supreme Court. Each was granted bail in self of £2OO, and two sureties of £lOO each. Swann was remanded until to-morrow, and allowed the same bail as the other accused.