POETIC PLEA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11405, 5 January 1931, Page 7

POETIC PLEA

‘‘"WISHING MURDERERS A HAPPY XMAS”

LONDON, Dec. 17. “The death penalty is a just penalty. People who talk of the sanctity ot human life seem to think only ot the sanctity of the murderer’s Ure, and to ignore the murdered”, says Sir 0. S. R'entoul, K.C., M.P. He was one of the minority of the Parliamentarv SolGCfc l Committco which withdrew from the committee because the majority fayored an experimental five years’ abolition. Sir jG. Rentoul denounces tho report as ridiculous, a mere . poetic plea, wliicli will not carry weight, m the House.,of Commons. “It contains innumerable quotations from the poets, . including Robert Burns, from historians, old preachers and. lawyers, none of which has tho slightest bearing on the .evidence. We heard Sir Archibald Bodkin, former Public Prosecutor. His weighty words tire barely mentioned, but the. evidence of prison chaplains, who said lioav. nicely murderers talk in gaol, are greatly emphasised. .We.objectors wanted to prepare an alternative report, but the others wanted to rush the report, drafted by. Rev. J. Barr, M.P., into print, and thus give the brutal murderers at present'in prison: a happier Christmas.’’ In a leading article, ‘,The Times” points out that six of the 15 members of the select committee so acutely disagreed as to the course which the investigations 'were taking that they ceased-, to attend while the report Avas taking plmpe. The report is not signed, and there can, according to select committee practice, be no minority report. The anonymity of the report prompts the question: “Whose report is it, and Avhat is it worth?”