MINERS TO BE RELEASED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 443, 27 August 1928, Page 9

MINERS TO BE RELEASED

ACT OF CLEMENCY GAOL FOR DERAILING TRAIN~ (United P.A. — By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Saturday. The derailment of a train at Cramlington, Northumberland, while the general strike was in progress in 1926, resulted in eight miners being sentenced to imprisonment. The facts are recalled by an official announcement to the effect that the Home Secretary, Sir William JoynsoitHicks, recently considered the men’s sentences. The statement says the miners displaced a rail and only a warning from the driver of the Flying Scotsman prevented the lives of 27 passengers being endangered. Even then the train was derailed. The crime was a terrible one and the sentences did not err on the side of severity, the statement continues, but, having regard to the previous good character of the prisoners the Home Secretary, with the concurrence of the Judge who sentenced the men, recommended His Majesty to reduce their sentences as an act of clemency. William Muckle, William Baker and Oliver Sanderson, who were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, will be released on September 1. James Allison and Gordon Stephenson will have their sentences reduced from six to four years, Arthur Silson, Thomas Roberts and Robert Harbottle f*om eight to five years.