ARCOS RAID SEQUEL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16376, 25 June 1927, Page 4

ARCOS RAID SEQUEL

• AUCKLANDEB IN COURT ALLEGED SEDITIOUS DOCUMENT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. A charge of selling a document, a copy of the Labor Monthly for March, 1954/, which expressed seditious intention, was preferred against Albert Edward Basham in the Police Court yesterday afternoon. Basham stated that he had been a member of the Communist party for two years. l Mr. Hubble, for the Crown, said sedition was defined in the Crimes Act as anything which would cause discontent or, dissatisfaction among His Majesty's subjects, or promote feelings of ill-will or hostility among different classes. He. then quoted from the leading article of the March number of the Labor Monthly, stating that the entire tenor of the article disclosed intention to promote, feelings of ill-will and hostility.

Commenting on the British policy in China, the article referred to "the exploiters and sharks who were engaged in maintaining an apparatus for squeezing blood out of the Chinese workers." There were also references to the War on British Imperialism. The message conveyed by the book was that the workers should unite to overthrow British Imperialism in China. Mr. 'J. J. Suilivan, for -the -defence, submitted that there was.no case to answer, as the only definition of sedition was that contained in the Crimes Act. It was necessary for the prosecution to show guilty intent, and prove that accused knew the magazine contained seditious material. SOLD BY LABOR PARTY.

Accused, he said, wrote to the Controller of Customs, Wellington, asking for advice regarding the sale of the magazine, and received a reply stating that certain copies of the Labor Monthly" had been submitted to the department, but the particular copies submitted were not regarded as prohibited. Accused therefore sold the magazine in entire innocence, and had no idea it contained anything that might be regarded as seditious. This was his first appearance in court. Ho had served in the Royal Navy during the whole of the war, and received an honorable discharge. Basham, in evidence, said he knew copies of the Labor 'Monthly had been sold by Whitcorabe and Tombs, and by the New Zealand Labor Party. He had never advocated the carrying oat of any doctrine by other than lawful means. . Mr. Hubble: Are you the Basham mentioned in the cables from England recently? . Accused: There was a Basham mentioned, „ but I do not know who it was. But you did once live at the address mentioned ?—Yes.

Further questioned, the accused said the Communist Party was identical with tho Third Communist International. The Magistrate, Mr. McKean, reserved his decision.