WARRANT CANCELLED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20141, 10 January 1940, Page 4

WARRANT CANCELLED

DEPORTATION ORDER HARRY BRIDGES CASE (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Jan. 10, 9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 8. The Secretary of Labour, Miss Frances Perkins, to-day made an announcement cancelling the deportation warrant against the Australian Harry Bridges and giving approval to the finding delivered on' December 30 by Judge Landis.

A message dispatched from Washington on December 30 stated that Harry Bridges had been found innocent of Communist Party membership or Communist affiliation, the charges on which tile Federal Immigration Service sought to deport him to Australia. The special trial examiner, ‘Judge Landis, reported to the Secretary of Labour, Miss Frances Perkins, that Bridges’ aims were “energetically radical, but the proof fails to establish the methods he seeks to employ to realise them other than those that the framework of democratic constitutional government permits.” The report had the effect of recommending the cancellation of the deportation order issued on March 2, 1938. The Minister of Labour announced that the evidence did not warrant deportation. Extraordinary publicity was given the finding. The case aroused nation-wide interest and excitement, accentuated by one newspaper breaking the release date and causing an outcry and forcing Miss Perkins to advance the time for permitting all papers to publish it. Bridges announced that he intended to become an American citizen. “I have long desired to become one,” he said. “Now the obstacles are cleared away I shall seek naturalisation fit the earliest opportunity."