BISHOP LISTON.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2125, 17 May 1922, Page 5

BISHOP LISTON.

BEFORE SUPREME COURT. WAS SPEECH CORRECTLY REPORTED? EVIDENCE OF PRESSMAN. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Last Night. The Bishop Liston case opened today. . The first witness was Gordon Stanbrook, a press reporter. Answering Judge Stringer, witness said what he wrote for his paper was practically a verbatim copy of part of his notes, changed from the first person into the third person. His Honour asked: "Are you sure of the expression '•murdered"by foreign troops?"

Witness: "Yes." Replying to Mr. Meredith, witness said he did not take the whole of the speech, but nothing else that was said would have altered the tenor of his report. To His Honour: The expressions were not qualified in any way. There was no doubt about the use of the words "murdered by foreign troops, the. reference to 'the glorious Easter of 191G,' and of 'men and women willing to die.' Mr Meredith: "What, did you mean when you said you took only what you wanted?" Witness: "What I considered of public interest. I did not take a shorthand note. Counsel: "Is it not a risky thing to say part of the speech is verbatim, when vou took it in longhand?' Witness: "It is possible to remember some passages." He admitted some of his evidence differed from that given in the Lower Court. He had to rely almost entirely on his memory. "Do you still think the people referred to by the Bishop died at Easter, 1916?" ■ ... . Witness: "On consideration, I tmnK the reference also concerned people who had died after Easter, 1916"Do you say the Bishop said that women during Easter week were murdered by foreign troops?" Witness: "Yes. He had a list in his hand." FOR THE DEFENCE. Other evidence for the Crown was mainly on the lines of the proceedings in the lower Court. For the defence, Mr. J. O'Regan said the jury must have been satisfied that the report on which the charge was based, which was admittedly brief, was also inaccurate. Bishou Liston had preserved the notes of his speech and they would be put In. The jury would have, no difficulty in deciding, after hearing the Bishop, that he had no seditious intention and that the. words if properly reported, were not capable of that interpretation. Words had to be taken in thensetting, and it was altogether unfair to do as had been done by the press throughout New Zealand, to publish what the Bishop had said in one paragraph isolated from its context and to make drastic comment upon it, as a result. He had no hesitation in saying that this was the class of case which put the jury system to the

severest test. Giving evidence, Bishop Liston said he had never been a member of the Self-Determination League. He was a native of Dunedin, and his parents arrived in 186 3 or 1864. They were born in 1547 and 1859 respectively. He admitted the report of his speech regarding their being driven from Ireland and "snobs of the Empire" was substantially correct. He was referring to the eviction of his parents and three and three-quarter millions evicted with them. He was recalling what eviction in Ireland meant. The passage about "the glorious Easter of 1916" did not accurately represent what he had said. The document from which he read that portion of his speech had come to him through the mail in the afternoon just before the concert. His words were "I have here a list of the men and women who were proud- to die lor Ireland during and since 1916. Of these, 16 were executed by shooting in 191 C, and 52 were killed while fighting during the Easter of 1916, including- Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who died of a hunger strike. Eight were executed by hantring, twelve were executed by shooting and 57, including three priests, were murdered by foreign troops! "Those," said Bishop Liston, "were the exact words I used." Only those In the last category were meant to be described as murdered by foreign troops. He did not speak of the Easter week people as being murdered at all. He did not refer to any women as being killed in Easter week. Nothing would be further from his thoughts than to refer to those killed in Easter week as murdered. The word 'murdered' referred only to those killed in 1920 by the Black and Tans, when the policy of reprisals was in full swing. It would have been better to have mentioned the Black and Tans instead of using the word troops, but he took it his audience knew the word "murdered" was used because leading statesmen and Anglican clergy in England employed it in referring to the Black and Tan reprisals. The words "glorious Easter." he thought, were used parenthetically. It was a common phrase applied to that insurrection.

"FIRST INSTALMENT OP FREEDOM." At the time it occurred, many people in Dublin thought it a mad enterprise, but with the lapse of time, it was felt those who had died had passed, beyond criticism, the 'first instalment of freedom." Witness referred to the Treaty. In his opinion if. was the gift of God, because it gave political freedom to Ireland. By "determined to have the whole of it," he meant that though relations had been adjusted by Treaty between England and Ireland, there was still a great deal to be done. For instance, the union of the. two Parliaments. This could be achieved by friendly agreement, without any force. He had not mentioned force and he failed to see how his words could infer of use of force. Witness had in his mind a parallel between New Zealand and Ireland. The report about there being 'plenty to fight and die for Ireland,' did not accurately represent his statement. Quoting from his notes he declared his words to have been God has made Ireland a nation, and while grass grows and water runs, there will be men in Ireland, and women, to fight and even to die, that God's desires, may be jrealised,"' £l%

had no intention to infer that physical force should be used. The case was adjourned.