MANY WITNESSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 196, 20 July 1936, Page 8

MANY WITNESSES

INCIDENT IN LONDON. ACCUSED IN~HOSPITAL. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received July 18. 1.50 p.m. LONDON. July 17. 4 Within a few hours of Scotland Yard’s appeal for eye-witnesses of the revolver incident at the Arch, 121 persons, the majority being women, including visitors from overseas, communicated with the authorities All whose testimony appears to he valuable will be interviewed by detectives with a view to giving evidence. Under the present charge the maximum penalty is 20 years’ penal servitude. McMahon is in hospital at Brixton, the prison officials deciding that his condition necessitated confinement in a ward instead of a cell. His only visitor has been Alfred Kerstein, a solicitor. TRIBUTE TO KING. BY HON. R. SEMPLE. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH. July 18. A, striking tribute,to King Edward as the greatest democrat who has sat on the Throne of England, or any other throne in the world, was paid by Hon. R. Semple this morning, when expressing his great relief that the attenwt on the King’s life had failed. “It is a blessing that the fanatic did not fulfill his murderous mission,” said Mr Semple. “The British Empire would have suffered a terrible shock if he had. The present King is the greatest democrat who has sat on the Throne of England or any other throne in the world. As I have said on former occasions, in other countries democracies have perished and desperate dictatorships have emerged out of the ruins. England is the one country which has stood steadfast for democratic principles to the end. She has plaved a wonderful part in attempting to Veep the peace of the world. “The King is a man of the people. His attitude towards the 'Welsh coal strikers proved him to be one of the most humane monarchs who has ever lived, and he is primarily responsible for the great activity in clearing away the slum conditions in the great cities of the Old Land. It is, indeed, fortunate in these changing times, when democracy is at the crossroads, that we should have as our King a man so beloved of bis people and -who lias been standing for years for the rights of citizenship, from the poorest to the richest. The attack on the King s life is a warning to the authorities in lhe Old Land to be more careful. It is not always the tyrant who is assassinated; great humanitarians, such as Abraham Lincoln and Jean Jaures, ot France, were assassinated and this ought to be a warning, because these fanatics never attack a man when lie is protected, but usually shoot him in tlie back,” Mr Semple added.