DEPORTATION OF LYONS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19492, 29 May 1925, Page 8

DEPORTATION OF LYONS.

LABOUR LEADER’S PROTEST. SHARP REPLY OP ATTORNEYGENERAL. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 28. The Attorney-General, Sir Francis Bell, has forwarded a sharply-worded reply to the leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr H. B. Holland, who telegraphed protesting against the deportation of Lyons in connection with the trouble on the Manuka. Sir Francis Bell received the following telegram from Mr Holland yesterday; “I desire respectfully to make the strongest possible protest against the deportation of Lyons. I do not agree with his views, and it does not follow that I endorse his actions by making this protest. As a matter of fact, those who think with him are bitterly opposed to the political Labour movement, but I would point out that if anyone breaks the laws of New Zealand he can be dealt with by ordinary legal processes. The denial of the right of trial is a repudiation of the Magna Charta itself, and in any case the deportation method without trial savours so much of Prussia in the worst days of Kaiserdom it ought never to adopted in a country like New Zealand.” To-day, Sir Francis Bell telegraphed the following reply; “Your telegram protesting against the order requiring Lyons to leave New Zealand recalls a controversy which arose between you and myself in 1021 when I was acting for Mr Massey during his absence in England. I refer you to our then correspondence to define my position and yours. Lyons openly expresses contempt for constitutional methods, and advocates what he designates direct action to provide, a social revolution, and ho distributes literature, the mere possession of which for publication is a criminal offence. You know as Ido that direct action includes murder, and you therefore rightly oppose it. The Attorney-General is bound by law and public duty to prevent it”