THE COLCHESTER MUDDLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7069, 31 July 1901, Page 4

THE COLCHESTER MUDDLE.

IDENTIFICATION TESTS.

STEPS TOWARDS LILLYWHITE'S

EXONERAIION.

The cable service has already advised us that Mr Charles Lillywhite, late of Wellington, has completely .cleared himself of the suspicion that he was the person (Arthur Blatch) " wanted" by the English police for the Colchester murder, and has been set at liberty. As to what were the final steps leading up to his liberation we shall have to wait for later mails, but the following: letter just to hand from, a London correspondent, is interesting.as indicating the course Of events :—■ . ' :-

London, June 21. Mystery still surrounds, the extraordinary case of the man who has just been brought Home from New Zealand under suspicion of being Arthur Blatch, the prisoner suspected of having committed the Colchester murder in 1893. He persists in declaring that he is not Arthur Blatch, but Charles Lillywhite, who left England for America in 1885, and who was in Kensott, County Tacoma, at the time of the tragedy, leaving there for New Zealand in 189-1

Manifestly therefore, before the point can be determined whether, that murder was really cornrnittted by Arthur Blatch at all, it has to be settled whether the prisoner just brought Home be Blatcb, or, as he hiraseff alleges, Charles Lillywhite. There are hundreds of people in Colchester who knew Blatch. Tho prisoner was placed among other men, while some of those who Imew Blatch were invited to see whether they could pick Blatch out from a group. At the prisoner's own suggestion the test was made in two different ways. He was first submitted in his unshaven state to the ordeal; on the second occasion he had all the hair on his face removed, excepting his moustache, before he confronted the potential The result of these tests has it is alleged, been kept secret. Even the local solicitor who is representing the Treasury for the prosecution, stated when he ap. peared in Court later on in the day, that he had not been informed.: But some facts have come out, which, in the interests of the aooused, should be published without delay. "It ; has already, gone forth to the world," ..isays - a daily paper, that the police officers who brought the man Home, who knew Blatch before the murder, identify their man as Blatch. It has already gone forth to the world that the woman who \ised to he known in Colchester as Margaret Archer, but who married a Chinaman at the Antipodes, has recognised the accused as Blatch; that, indeed, she gave the information to the New Zealand police which first led to the arrest of the man who is known in Wellington as Charles Lillywhite.. painter and decorator. This being so. it .is only fair to publish speedily the news that, whoever identified the accused as Blatch at yesterday's, ordeals, there were some striking instances also of non-identification. Mr Page, farmer, of Fingringhoe, knew Blatch well, and could not see him in the group among whom the accused was" placed. Mr Sizzey, who was manager at Mr Welch's tailoring shop, where Blatch. was porter, failed to make any identification. Eyen still more remarkable—lsaac Lillywliite, of Leeds, declares that the accused is his brother, Charles Lillywhite. Certainly, at the first attempt, Issac Lillywhite picked out as his brother the wrong man from the group, but he afterwards selected the accused, and if his evidence is to be accepted, the Crown would seem to be driven to one of two alternatives—either they would have to drop the charge, or else maintain that Charles Lillywhiteis the same man who came to Colchester in the name of Arthur Blatch and remained there under that name in Mr Welch's employment." " Immediately on his arrival, the prisoner was brought before tho Colchester Bench of Magistrates. Much to tho surprise and disappointment of the public _in general, the proceedings took place in the strictest privacy, it being held by the Bench that a public hearing might be prejudicial to the interests of justice. On Tuesday, however, the accused was brought again before the Colchester Bench, which this time sat publicly. No evidence was oftorea, but the police simply applied for a remand. The Mayor, Mr Egerton Green, asked the accused if he had anything to say. Speaking with a strong American accent, the accused said: —" I have not the slightest objection. It is necessary that it should be so, and a few weeks or bo more or leas won't hurt. lam somewhat seasoned."

After a short conference between the Bench and the police, the accused said: —" Your Worship, if it would be in order, may I speak ? My name is not Arthur Blatch. J understand che position fully, but my point is this—ln the British nation or any part of the world a man is not supposed to be guilty until he is found guilty. I have not been found to be Ar.-hur :Blatch, and you' have got a mighty lot of work on hand to show that I am any one elso than Charles Liilywhite. That is my name, and I think I should be allowed'to wear it." ■ ■ ' • • .

Tho Magistrate—So far as this Court is concerned, you stand here charged in the name of Arthur Blatch, and we do not know you by another surname. The Accused—l have to prove my innocence, hue the Court cannot prove my guilt.

A remand was then formally ordered. It was quite evident that the"sympathy of most people present went very strongly with the accused man, who was several times loudly cheered, an experience that very rarely falls, to the lot of any one accused of murder -the general tendency being to suspect that he would not have been standing his trial on such a charge unless fairly strong grounds existed for the step. In this case, however, the public generally may be said to favour the idea that there has been a mistake in identity. .Certainly it was very remarkable that a number .of witnesses appear to have maintained stoutly that the prisoner is not the man-they knew seven or eight years before as Arthur Blatcb. Some go even so far as to assert that there is not oven any strong degree of resemblance between the two men. On the other hand, Mr Isaac Lillywhite, as to whose identity and good failh no question whatever has . been raised, or appears likely to bo raised, is quite convinced that the accused is his brother, Charles Liilywhite, and I understand that he has been so identified by other persons whu knew him.

Meanwhile, tho authorities arc c!oso'y watching everything that appears in the

English papers on the subject, and have! allowed it to" be.pretty well;understood that they will proceed stringently against any journal -which' publishes.any thing-, calculated to defeat "the ends of justice, whether by being likely to prejudice a jury against the prisoner or to impress unduly the idea that he has been wrongfully accused. .Thus, apart from 'its exceptionally ana curiously-sensational character in. itself, "this case possesses the potentiality' of almost innumerable developments in the way of side issues, and it is rumoured that; already oho'- or: two press prosecutions are in contempla-' tion on the score of statements or com: mehts that have appeared. ' :"-: Y . '-'■■ The extraordinary frequency of euioide at the present time has been the subject of remark. One recent case is that of Dr. Bond, the eminent army surgeon, who threw himself out of his window at Westminster, and falling 70ffwas killed almost instantaneously; It appears that Dr. Bond was intimately connected with: the proceedings in this remarkable affair, seeing that it was very largely on his medical testimony, given in 1893, that a verdiot of wilful murder was returned against- Arthur Blatch. I imagine that Dr. Bond would necessarily' have been an important witness for the proseoution had he lived, and it is not a little strange that he should have been thus tragically removed by a violent death, self-inflicted, through delirium. '