TO GET CENSORS’ JOBS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1941, Page 5

TO GET CENSORS’ JOBS

POSE AS MAN AND WIFE. LONDON, March 26. Michael Ki rice, an Army officer, described as a journalist and author, and Honora Foley, said to be a journalist and a good linguist, were charged at Glasgow yesterday under the Defence Regulations, with making false statements in applying for posts in the .Postal Censorship Department of the War Office. They were found guilty and fined £2O each, with the alternative of a month’s imprisonment. Sheriff Guild, giving his decision, said: “If there had been the slightest suggestion of anything in the nature of what is popularly described as ‘Fifth Column’ work, I would have dealt with the matter very severely indeed.”

It was alleged that Kirke and Foley had pretended they were man and wife. Foley was also charged with giving false statements in applying for a duplicate identity card. It was stated that Kirke’s application was withdrawn later, but Foley began duty in Glasgow on July 8, 1940. On August 13 there was a call for identity cards, and Foley could not produce hers. She stated afterwards that she had applied for a duplicate, but she subsequently resigned. Kirke, who appeared in Court in the uniform of a lieutenant in the Army, with a row of medal ribbons, was stated to be 48. Giving evidence, he said that he was a former Regular Army Reserve officer and was now in the Highland Light Infantry. Among other decorations, he had the Military Cross, the Military Medal, the Croix de Guerre and the Italian Silver Order for Valour. He declared that he had applied for a post in the Censorship Branch under his pen-name of Michgel Fitzmaurice to test whether it investigated applications properly. Iff his letter of application, he said, he had described himself as “a bad lot” deliberately. Later he was called up for military service, and thought no more of the application. When he heard afterwards that Foley had applied under the name of Mrs. Fitzmaurice he- was very angry. !

Foley, who is 32, and was described as a graduate of Glasgow University, and Kirk’s secretary, said that when she went to Edinburgh to apply for a censorship post she was addressed as Mrs. Fitzmaurice. Tnis gave her the idea of getting in under an assumed name.

She said in a statement: “My name was keeping me from getting a job in the censoTship office. I got an opportunity of changing my name, and

I took it. lam a perfectly loyal British subject and made my original application with a view to doing my bit. I conceived there was good material in the matter from a journalistic point of view, and I got a good story.