MARY DEFAULTERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 November 1945, Page 3

MARY DEFAULTERS

WAR NOT ENDED 7 — CHIEF JUSTICE’S RULING WELLINGTON, November 22. An application for release from detention, by a writ of Habeas Corpus, of a military defaulter, on the ground that the war for the duration of which he had been committed to detention, had ended, was refused by the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court to-day. The applicant was Patrick James Hourigan, of the Whitanui detention camp. Several hundred men are still in defaulters’ detention camps. During the hearing a Ministerial statement that the war with Germany and Italy still existed was presented to the Court. On behalf of the applicant, Mr R. E. Harding said Hourigan was sentenced under the regulations which came into force on August 28, 1941, when only war was with Germany and Italy; and by force of those regulations he was held “for the duration of the’ present war.” On July 26, 1945, the Finance Act was passed, a section of which provided that the term “the present Avar,” should be interpreted as including war with Japan, and be taken to continue till a date to be proclaimed.- It was 15 months after the 1918 armistice that the proclamation ending the war was issued. Mr Harding said that questions which arose were: Before the Act of July 26, 1945, was the period of the applicant’s sentence to be ascertained with reference to the termination of the wars with Germany and Italy? If it was, did those wars end before July 26? If so, were the provisions of the Act retrospective, so as to extend the applicant’s sentence? His Honor, said: The whole question comes down to : What is the duration of the war? Mr Harding submitted that the present Avar “could only mean the wars that were current when the rey gulations were brought into force*. Germany was no longer a sovereign State, and one could not be at war with something that, did not exist! The White Paper issued in England, containing the documents relevant to Germany’s unconditional surrender, showed that the war in respect to Germany was over. His Honor (who had previously remarked that war was started by an Act of the State) said: “It seems to me your strongest argument is that the White Paper, which is a document presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, by command of His Majesty, is an Act of State declaring that war is ended.” Mr Harding said that he would adopt that argument. He submitted that the White Paper issued in England concerning the armistice with Italy was, also, an Act of State, implying the end of war. GOVT. DECLARATION Opposing the application, the Solicitor-General, Mr H. E. Evans, said it was implicit in the Finance Act that war still existed when the Act was passed. But he admitted it would not have the effect of rearresting men if Mr Harding were correct. Mr Evans handed to His Honor a document, under to-day’s date, signed by the Prime Minister, as follows: “His Majesty’s Government in New Zealand consider that a formal state of war has continued to exist, and still exists, between New Zealand and Italy, in September, 1943; and between New Zealand and Germany, following the declaration of the unconditional surrender of Germany, issued on June 5, 1945, by the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, and the Provisional Government of the French Empire.” Counsel submitted that the Government was the only source _to which the Court should look for information on such a matter. The documents in the White Papers had not been adopted by New Zealand, except by Ministers in their public statements. He contended that the document in- the White Paper on Italy was no longer more than an armistice. Mr Harding said the document signed by Mr Fraser was an opinion. The ground for the opinion they did not know. His Honor: It means that die Government is carrying on the business of the country on that basis. Mr Harding said it was only when the Court was unable from its own knowledge, to decide such a question that the question should be referred to the executive. / His Honor said the person m detention was entitled to know th® Court’s decision without delay, but the case was important, and he would give an extended judgment later There was nothing to show that the White Papers regarding Germany and Japan had been published in New Zealand, so that, whnn the Act was passed on July 26, there had been no declaration of termination of war. There was no intermediate state between peace and war An Act of the State start-J war, and there had been no corresponding Act of State showing it had ceased. It seemed, therefore, that the applicant was lawfully detained up to July 26. The Act of that date seemed to be only the declaration of rhe position as it existed in common law, and was in conformity with international laws. The Court coulo. not disregard the declaration of the Minister of External Affairs, so that tliere was a statute, a Minister s declaration, and an absence of an Acc of State in New Zealand terminating war, to support the view that the war to which the Regulations referred had not ended. METHODIST RESOLUTION During the second day’s session of the Nelson District Methodist Synod being held at Westport the Rev. RPatehett (Richmond) introduced the report of the Public Questions Committee. With regard to the detention of defaulters the Synod carried a motion: “That as no good pupose can be served in further detaining military defaulters, and that such.detention is merely vindictive and unChristian, they be now released and permitted to contribute something to the economic welfare of the country.” The Rev. C. Leadley (Picfon), introducing a motion dealing. with The church’s attitude to the atomic bomb, said the Methodist Conference rejoiced to know that science.had made further progress in the knowledge of atomic energy. It deeply regretted, however, that the use of the atomic bomb was involved in the destruction of the lives of many civilians and believed that man’s moral and spiritual development -was entirely inadequate i to make him a worthy guardian of' this great power and stressed the urgent need for moral and spiritual

growth. The following motion was carried: “The conference noted with alarm that the possibility of an atomic warfare is being calmly assumed, instead of there being a fixed determination to avoid war. It .demands that power politics end and that mutual understanding and trust become a reality.”