A PRISON STORY

Grey River Argus, 4 October 1918, Page 4

A PRISON STORY

MAN WHO '/HAD NO CHANCE." How a man who was sent to prison for a crime of which he was not guilty, how he became violent, and almost insane, as the result of brooding over the wrong, and how, after he was released, he served his country gallantly at the front until he was killed in action, was told by the At-torney-General of New South Wales (Mr. Hall). Behind the bare announcement recently given in a cable message that No. 634, Private George Harris, had been killed in action on August Bth, lies a story which proves once more that fact is stronger than fiction. Publicity was first given to this story by Mr. Hall in the Sydney ; "Sunday Times." "When I first saw George Harris," I said Mr. Hall, "hiß number was 57, | not 634. He was serving a life senI tence in the Parramatta gaol *or atI tempted murder. The gaol records said of him, 'He nurses imaginary wrongs, is very cunning, irritable, and easily upset. He has made violent, treacherous, and unprovpked assault on prison official, and on fellow-prisoners.' Be was not allowed the use of a knife and fork, and ate his food from a vooden dish with a wooden spoon. The voist man in the gaol,' one of the officials whispered tp me when Harris came to 'fair deal.' "Harris told me," continued Mr. Hall, "that he could not remember his parents. The first thing he could re-call-was being handed over, «t .the age of three, to someone in Sydney, to be looked after. At the age of Vi he was on the training ship Sobraon. When he left that, at 16, he at once got into trouble, and he was In gaol and out of gaol for the next five years. On his 21st birthday he made up his mind to reform. He had to live with doubtful characters, because he knew no respectable persons, but he bought a basket, and earned an honest living by hawking. Then a woman, who hart been hit and robbed of her handbag, wrongfully identified him as her assailant. At the time of the offence he was playing cards with a man and two women in a house in which he lived. He calted these three persons as witnesses, but their admissions iv cross-examination as to their character was such that the iury would not believe , that they were speaking the truth. Harris, who said, 'Before God. I am innocent of this charge,' was found guilty, and sentenced to lif; years' imprisonment." v/ 'Tlarris told me," Mr. Hall wentr'on, "that during his previous terip^ in prison he had just made the^jest of it. and was always regardtii as a 'good' prisoner. But to "Vfi wrongly convicted after he had tisM so hard to live honestly drove hip(J nearly mad. He was always in troulJie, and. after two years, he stabbedjpthe covernor of the fraol with a kqw;. He was sentenced to death, bujpthe governor recovered, and the s&atence was turned into penal servitude for life. Then he went quite mad, and was put Into the hospital for. 'the criminal insane. After a year qtr more he escaped, but w*is recapture^'. He told fhe constable who arrested him that he was not guilty of;' the robbery for which he was giveii 10 years, and the onstable ! saioVtnat he had heard of a number of ., persons who said the same. , •' "Having told me his story, Harris be^ered me to test it in every "way possible." said Mr. Hall. "He askpd me. if I found that he was not guilty of the robbery, to put a limit o n his sentence, and not to leave him in prison for life. A careful and exhaustive study of the case lent colour to his contentions. The statements of the constable who had arrested him after his escape greatly strengthened any doubts as to his guilt in the robbery case. In the ordinary way, Harris's case would have been reconsiiierin 1927, but I wrote a minute expressing doubts as to the original crime charged against him. I stated that if at the end of six years the medical men were convinced that his ! mental condition "was satisfactory, and if his conduct in gaol had been good, I would, if in office as Minister of Justice, release him. As a matter of fact, such was the change that this hope made in him that my last act before handing over the direct control of the prisons to Mr. Garland, in. 1916, was to give the order for his release. When I told him he would be released in a few days, and asked what he would do, he said. 'I am now 34, and I have spent 16 years in gaoL I have not a relative in the world. There is only one tiling that a decent man in my position ought to do, and that is to fight for his country. If you will let me, 1 will enlist. •He went to Brisbane the day after he was released," added Mr. Hall, "volunteered, and trained for the infantry. Then he volunteered lor the machine-gun section, remarking that lie wanted to join the 'Suicide Club,' because he had up relative to mourn if he were knocked out. This was literally true. Apart from the interest taken in him in my own household, there was pnly one other house in the world where anyone thought ot him. A young man who had known Harris in gaol had sent his csister in with a Christmas dinner for him. After this, she never forgot Harris pn the days when special dinners were allowed, and she is the heir, under his will, to the money saved by him during 20 months on service. While at the front, Harris always wrote cheerfully. His last letter told of the grand work dpne by the machine-gunners m stemming the great German offensive, and predicted that Marshal Foch would very soon give the Huns the surprise of their lives. Then came the end. He died fighting bravely, I have no doubt; He did more for his country, and For civilisation, tjian was ever done for, him," ' •;"'..