MOVE TO VINDICATE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 26 November 1936, Page 10

MOVE TO VINDICATE

BAILLIE-STEWART CASE TO BE RE-OPENED

MAY GO TO AUSTRALIA

(By Air Mail—From a. Special Correspondent;) 1 /.;

LONDON, 7th November.

“I see no reason why a: young man, just because he has once done something rather foolish, should be forced to go through life with the stigma of ‘spy’ attached to his name.” That is why Mr John McGovern, M.P., will soon hold a private inquiry which he hopes will result in the complete vindication of Mr Norman Baillie-Stewart (the officer in the Tower) when Mr Stewart comes out of prison next January. It has been persistently reported that he will go to Australia.

Mr Baillie-Stewart, formerly a Lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, was found guilty in April, 1933, of charges under the Official Secrets Act. He was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude. “His mother expects that he will be released in three months’ time,” Mr McGovern said.

“I have arranged that he will then make a complete statement, incorporating facts which were not published during his trial, which was mainly heard in camera.

“With this, and other collected evidence to go on, several influential men in Army and civic life will foot the bill for a court of inquiry that will be independent of the War Office. “Too much of the trial, in my opinion, was held in camera. It should have been a civil court inquiry, anyway. His confession, for instance, bore no relation whatsoever to the grounds on which he was convicted.”