VITAL FOR SAFETY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20547, 6 May 1941, Page 11

VITAL FOR SAFETY

EMERGENCY REGULATIONS PACIFIST ACTIVITIES COMMENT BY JUDGE (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Comment on the activities of members of the Christian Pacifist Society was made by the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, at the opening of the quarterly criminal session of the Supreme Court to-day when, in his charge to the grand jury, he deait with the necessity for the emergency regulations and the illegality of the public expression of views which might be in order in normal times.

The calendar is the heaviest since May. 1933, and eight of the 18 accused are members of the Christian Pacifist Society who are charged under the emergency regulations. “On every occasion I think during the last 18 months when I have presided at any of the circuit towns of the North Island,” said Sir Michael Myers, “1 have been able to congratulate the district upon its comparative freedom from crime. I regret that at this sitting I am unable to offer the same congratulations to this the capital city,” Sir Michael Myers said. “It is an unfortunate and strange commentary upon the conditions of the present day that of 18 cases on the list there are no fewer than eight charges of offences against the emergency regulations.”

“Nobody liked emergency regulations generally, he said. Nobody accustomed to the freedom of democratic institutions welcomed them, but the dangers of the time had to be considered and in times like these the emergency regulations were essential for the safety of the State.”