DRASTIC ACTION
DR. TOWNSEND'S OFFENCE PROSECUTION ORDERED WASHINGTON, May 29 The House of Representatives yesterday, by 271 votes to 41, decided to cite Dr. Townsend and two of his assistants for contempt of the House. The prosecution officials of the District of Columbia have been instructed also to initiate criminal action against them.
Tho investigation of tho Townsend plan was suspended suddenly on May 21 when Dr. Townsend angrily left the meeting of the investigating committee- at Washington. He said he would give no further evidence and defied the House of Representatives to have him arrested. Dr. Townsond's defiance followed a charge laid by the committee that his organisation had used the postal services to defraud, by soliciting small contributions from the inmates of a Masonic home for the aged on the promise that they would soon be awarded a monthly pension of 200 dollars. On the following day Dr. Townsend issued orders to all the officials of his organisation to boycott the hearings. Ignoring threats to summon him for contempt, Dr. Townsend left Washington with the parting words to his followers: "We will not go to gaol."
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22433, 1 June 1936, Page 10
Word Count
188DRASTIC ACTION New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22433, 1 June 1936, Page 10
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