"VIGILANCE SOCIETY"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18991, 16 April 1936, Page 15

"VIGILANCE SOCIETY"

CRITICISM BY JUDGE DIVORCE CASE SEQUEL DECREE RESCINDED LONDON, March 6. The National Vigilance Society was referred to in the Divorce Court yesterday by Mr. Justice Langton When he gave judgment in a case in which the King's Proctor intervened. A decree nisi granted to a husband in October, 1034, was rescinded. "It has nqt been necessary," said his lordship, "to press my investigations 'in regard' to the National Vigilance Society, and I make no pronouncement concerning it other than that, if it exists at all, it would appear to be a society that requires very careful investigation." The King's Proctor intervened to show cause whv a decree nisi granted to John Ilallett, of Edgeley road, f'lapham, SAW. on the ground of the alleged adultery of his wife with Albert Smith, on Durdham Downs, near Bristol, should not be made absolute! The case for the King's Proctor was that Mrs. Ilallett had not committed adultery; that divorce papers -mid to have been served on her were not given to her, and that Ilallett committed adultery at Edgeley road, CJaphani, with a'Mrs. Amy Knapp. This was denied by Ilallett and Mrs. Knapp. '' UNNECESSARY CRUELTY'' Mr. Justice Langton, describing the case as a very serious one, said he heard Ilallett's 'petition, which was undefended. The witnesses included Walter Jackson, who said he was a National Vigilance Society inquiry agent. "I do not think," said the judge, "that Ilallett. was a party to the falsity of this .case. 1 think he was the victim and not the flctor in a fraud. I am completely satisfied that Mrs. Ilallett did not commit adultery with Smith." Jackson claimed to have served the divorce petition on Mrs. Ilallett in a Bristol street, but, on the evidence Or Mrs. 'llallett's employer alone, His Lordship was prepared to lint] that she could not have been there when Jackson claimed to have served the petition on her. His Lordah)p continued: "When the cross-examination of Jackson had proceeded a short way the distrust I felt for Jackson had deepened so far that 1 felt it was almost an unnecessary cruelty to allow the cross-examination to continue. "The action which I shall feel bound Io take as a result of this case will no doubt result in Jackson having another opportunity of explaining his- astonishing evidence in the suit before me in October, 1934. As that opportunity, if it is afforded, will he before a jury, if is probably fair and proper that I should say no more concerning Jackson's evidence. It is necessary I should say thai 1 wholly and utterly disbelieve him." The King's Proctor's plea had been established, and the decree must, be rescinded. "The position in this ease of the National Vigilance Society remains completely obscure," the judge continued. "As far as ! have been able io inquire into it, the uiosi important individual in this society appears io be a Mr. Sanstim, who is, I understand, at present in prison."