THE FREER CASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22603, 16 December 1936, Page 18

THE FREER CASE

MINISTER CRITICISED LIEUTENANT'S STATEMENT ORDERING OF AN INQUIRY [from our own corrksvonuknt] SYDXEY, Dec. 10 Mrs. M. M. Freer's ]2-hours visit to Sydney Harbour last l'Yidav aiul her unsuccessful Court action iu that brief time -were squeezed out of the main news pages of the Sydney newspapers by the crisis a rising in connection with King Edward. "While that crisis lasts, Mrs. Freer will not attain the news proni.inen.co she received during the preceding month, but one of the most interesting developments of the whole case lias come with a statement by Lieutenant R. E. Dewar, whose friendship with Mrs. Freer in India was the origin of the ban on her.

Lieutenant Dewar was at Albury conducting a class of instruction in gunnery when he made a statement to press representatives. He said that Mrs. Freer s case was by 110 means finished. Jt would be carried further, and he believed the ban would eventually be lifted. He was not at liberty to outline the action that would be taken, but it would be originated in New Zealand on Fridav.

Lieutenant Dewar was then reported to say:—" Mr. Paterson has no right

to ban a British subject in such a way. We will fight tooth and nail to achieve our rights, and will not let up until the ban has been lilted. It is most unfair and unsportsmanlike. Mr. Paterson lias indicated that he is a very unjust man in refusing to let the case be heard bv a tribunal."

The sj>eaker added that the information 011 which the Minister acted did not come from any official source. It came from a man who had once believed himself to be regarded favourably bv Mrs. Freer.

The statement, as was expected by everyone who read it, attracted the attention of the Minister for Defence, Sir Archdale Parkhi 11, immediately. Defence Force officers are not generally permitted to make statements 011 questions affecting Ministerial policy, and Lieutenant Dewar is a permanent.officer of the military forces. Sir Archdale Parkhill asked the Military Board to inquire into and report on the remarks Lieutenant Dewar was alleged to have made. The board's inquiry will be held in private, but its report will be made public and, no doubt, will create as much interest as any development that has occurred in the Freer case.