HONOLULU TRIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1932, Page 3

HONOLULU TRIAL

A MURDER CHARGE.

In reference to the trial on a charge of murder of Lieut. Massie and Mrs Fortescue in process at Honolulu, the circumstances of the crime of which

they are accused are very unpleasant

but the space given them to in the American newspapers is not entirely due to a love sensation, as the trial niay have an important bearing on the political future of the Hawaiian islands.

The series of incidents of which I the trial is a climax began on Sep- ‘' tember 12th, when Lieutenant Massie’s wife was assaulted by a gang of men in a lonely part of Honolulu. Next jr day five American citizens } of Japanese and Hawaiian extraction, were 4 arrested and charged with, the as- * sa'ult. The trial lasted three weeks. After deliberating for ninety-seven hours, the jury failed to agree. A few days later one of the accused men was set upon and severely beaten, and on January Bth Lieutenant Massie and Mrs Fortescue, his mother-in-law, were caught driving along a road with the corpse of another of the accused men in their car. Their arrest on a charge of murder raised to a dangerous pitch the racial antagonism which had centred upon the original trial. Sailors were confined to their quarters through fear of riots, and for a time there was virtualmartial law.

The situation was so serious that President Hoover called a special meeting of Cabinet to discuss it and the Senate, after an angry debate, insructed the Attorney-General to report efrii.conditions in the islands. In the meantime the Navy Department, with the-rsupport of several powerful newspapers, was laying the blame for the outrages on the weakness of the civil administration. Kear-Admiral Stirling, commander of- the Fourteenth Naval District, which includes Honolulu, said in a Press statement:“The most serious aspect of the general situation is the inefficiency of the police, due to the system of political appointments, the lack of qualified man or men to conduct the prosecution, and that the person or persons of mixed blood who have been selected as jurymen in assault cases have shown such apathy towards the crime that a just verdict is doubtful.” There is more behind this attack than meets the eye. The overwhelming preponderance of Japanese in Honolulu, since it gives them an increasing political influence, is regarded as a menace to the security of the naval base, and the Navy Department has for several years been anxious to get the administration into its own hands. The present affair has been used so adroitly that it is the civil administrators of Honolulu rather than Lieutenant Massie and Mrs Fortescue who are on trial.