DR LISTON’S VINDICATION

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1922, Page 4

DR LISTON’S VINDICATION

POWERFUL SPEECH OF MR O’REGAN. JUDGE CONDEMNS MR GUNSON’S ACTION. (Special to “Argus”). AUCKLAND. May 18. A striking feature of the Dr Liston case was counsel’s candid admission that the Bishop had applied the phrase ‘‘foreign murderers’’ to the Black and Tans, and counsel informed the jury that his client could make no retraction, in view of the undoubted fact that these outrages committed by these hired troo]»s had been denounced by representative Englishmen of all parties, from the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards. In dealing with the Bishop's reference to the “glorious Easter” in his speech, Mr O'Regan cited numerous historical illustrations of the fact that, great and enduring deeds had been donp which were illegal. Alilton was said to have spent one-third of his lifetime in support of Cromwell’s Government, and ho had published works defending the beheading of Charles L, which, clearly, was an illegal act. Monmouth, said counsel, had been put to death as a. traitor, but Lord MacAuley had written that, even in his day, Monmouth's was a name to conjure with in that part of England where his followers had fought and bled. John Brown, with a force of 19 men, had engaged an armed revolt against American slavery, and, though Brown was hanged as a traitor, he had given rise to the song which became the veritable battle hymn of the American Republic during the civil war; ami, to-day, the American mothers’ told their children the imperishable story of John Brown’s unflinching fortitude in the face of the Coming nearer home, Air O’Regan cited the story of the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat in 1856. There blood had been shed ir. a struggle, that apparently was hopeless between Crown forces and the Diggers, but to-day a magnificent monument stood to the men who had died on both sides. The rising in Dublin in 1916, was, of course, illegal, and no man could fairly blame the soldiers em.ployed in suppressing it; but the imagination of a nation had been touched by the unflinching courage with which the young men concerned had faced death against fearful odds, and it was undoubted that they would, for all time, be regarded by the people of Ireland as martyr v Finally, counsel reminded the jury that one of the men concerned in that rebellion, Michael Collins, # was now a Aiinister of the Crown, though until recently he was Commander-in-Cheif of the Irish Republican Army. He had no doubt thal it Mr Collins came to Auckland, lie would be received by the Afayor of Auckland (Mr Gunson) and he would not be surprised to find him dining at the Auckland Club with the Crown Prosecutor. (Laughter.) Accordingly, counsel argued that it could not rightly be held as seditious to praise men who, having given their lives, had passed beyond the realms of criticism, and there weleld up a hope in all of us inarticulate, but irrepressible, that, beyond the grave, the men who had fought each other would be everlasting friends. In dealing with the right of free j speech. Air O’Regan cited authorities J showing that it was absolutely unlimited i as long as violence were not advocated, I and decent language were employed. I Every citizen . M was free to advocate a I republic, if he wished, and to endeavour to persuade others accordingly. A | few hundred yards from that Court, there stood the statue of Sir George I Grey, who had repeatedly advocated ! an elective Governor, and in Sydney, a statue stood to John Dunmore Lang, tho Presbyterian Minister who, though a mem her of Parliament, had written a book advocating a republic, for Australia, on scriptural grounds, and Protestant principles:; and this statue to his memory had been erected by a parliamentary grant. Accordingly, counceived by the current heresies about sei besought the jury not to be deloyalty, as if no man was free to advocate a political change. Air O ’Regan’s speech exceeded an hour in its delivery, and it was listened to attentively by a crowded court. In the course of his summing up, Judge Stringer adversely criticised the Mayor of Auckland’s action in writing a, letter to the Bishop, and then publishing a protest, before the Bishop could possibly reply. At the conclusion of his summing up, the Judge said that the Black and Tans had unquestionably committed murders, and if the evidence satisfied the jury that the phrase “murdered by foreign troops” applied to them only, they should acquit the Bishop. The summing up last 55 minutes, and tho jury were absent about 40 minutes. It is an open secret that not a single juryman favoured a conviction, though every co-religionist of the Bishop had been excluded. The Bishop ami his counsel were today deluged with congratulations. Air O’Regan has been urged to publish his speech for the defence in pamphlet form. .