"WHITE LIE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

"WHITE LIE"

MOTHER DIED HAPPY HUMANE HOME SECRETARY CONCESSION TO CONVICT SON B Y one of his last acts as Homo Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare allowed a mother to die happy, falsely believing that her son, a Dartmoor convict, had been freed. Three times the dying woman saw her son, always in civilian clothes, and she never knew that outside in the passage two warders, also out of uniform, waited patiently to escort their charge back to gaol. Some weeks ago the chaplain at Dartmoor Prison received a letter telling him that the mother of one of the Dartmoor inmates was dying in her Battersea, London, home.

It said: "If she can see him again, for no matter how short a time, she will die less unhappily." The result of that letter was a petition to Sir Samuel Hoare, asking that the convict should see his mother before she died.

Permission came by telegram, and the next day the son and two warders, all in civilian dress, left for London. Staying each night in a London gaol, the convict was jivith his mother until she died.

Then, back in Dartmoor, he wrote to thank Sir Samuel Hoare.

Ho is still writing—to another Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson. He to be released, so that he can join the fighting forces.