ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24736, 13 October 1941, Page 7

ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY

ro THE EDITOR Sir.-7-One : reads with interest the pronouncement of the Prime Minister that every sort of weapon would be placed at the disposal of the police in the hunt for the killer on the West Coast. This is an amazing statement coming almost immediately after the passing of a law which is based on the principle that one who takes life must be treated as ""sick." This is an excellent opportunity for our labour

social evangelists to prove their beliefs. Yet what do they do? Instead of going out to meet the West Coast killer with an olive branch, a dove of peace, the hand of goodwill, a social security prescription for sick murderers, and some pills of repentance, Mr Fraser valiantly lends out the forces of destruction. Having, such recent experience of war in Egypt, in bombing raids in the Highlands of Scotland, and in the course of the journey home over Persia, our Prime Minister is in a position to realise the menace of the killer to society. The employment of rifles and other such weapons in connection with the West Coast murderer is absolutely at variance with the law recently passed for the protection of murderers, and in sanctioning their use the Government stands selfcondemned.—l am, etc.. Dunedin, Oct. 12. John Gilpin.