MOSLEY’S CASE

Grey River Argus, 11 December 1943, Page 2

MOSLEY’S CASE

QUESTION OF PROSECUTION.

LONDON, Dec. 9.

In the House of Commons, questions were put to the Home Secretary. Mr, Mander (Liberal) asked if Mr. Morrison was aware of the very widespread desire that specific charges be directed against the Mosleys. “Do I understand,” he said, “that under the law at present, there is no evidence on which such charges could be based?” Mr. Morrison replied that, so far as he knew, there was no such evidence. There was a duty resting upon Members, as well as Ministers, to deal with widespread feelings not based on fact. “If the suggestion is that Parliament should have enacted, or should now enact, some new law under which Mosley could be brought to trial and punished for his behaviour and activities, the effect would be to make a person liable.xor punishment for doing things which at the time they were done were not forbidden by ' law. However, widespread the feeling is to bring British Fascist leaders to trial, provision on the lines suggested would be wholly out of keeping with our conceptions of enquiry, and criminal justice and sound liberal doctrine.” Mr. Silverman asked whether the Minister was prepared to make available the medical reports on the health .of Mosle” which led to Mosley’s release. Mr. Morrison said he had nothing i.o add to his reply made on December 1. Commander Locker-Lampson asked whether it was usual procedure to release prisoners suffering from tbrombo-phlebitis and how many had been released. Mr. Morrison replied that it was the general policy to release on medical grounds if continued imprisonment would endanger a person’s life or reason, or shorten life or if he would be bedridden for the remainder of his life. Eight men and one woman had been released from prison in 1942 under this policy. Commander Locker-Lampson; Mosle\j has got off! So will Mussolini arid Hitler? The House of Lords will have its first question on the Mosley case when Viscount Elibank asks: /‘Whether the Government will, arrange criminally to prosecute Mosley for offences which led to his atrest as soon as he is sufficiently recovered in health?