PROTEST AGAINST LAW

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 7

PROTEST AGAINST LAW

FINE PAID FOR WOMAN. LONDON PLAYWRIGHTS’ ACTION By Telegraph-y Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Sept. 10. Frank Vosper, a young London playwright, paid Mrs. Pitlrer’s fine and she has been released from Holloway after three days. VoSper explains his action as a protest against the law, which says “You will be imprisoned if not rich enough to pay. It is wicked to make the punishment fit the crime only in relation to persons of financial position.” Mrs. Pither was fined £5O, or three months’ imprisonment, for making a false declaration to the registrar of births. A cablegram from London on August 25 stated: The kidnapping of a monthold child named Leslie Bailey has occupied much space in London newspapers since Friday, August 8. On the afternoon of that' day Mrs. Violet Pither, wife of a railway porter, informed the police that her baby had been kidnapped from a perambulator in a crowd in Edge-' ware Road. Immediately there •was a hue and cry. The search extended throughout London, and on August 12 the child was found in bed with his real mother, Mrs. Bailey, of West Ham. When the child was a fortnight old the mother advertised for a foster mother. Mrs. Pither answered and took over her charge. Then Mrs. Bailey repented and obtained the return of the baby from Mrs. Pither. Meanwhile Mrs. Pither had registered it as her own. Her husband swore it was hers. The neighbours ■who were called in to see the baby in bed with Mrs. Pither swore that it was her child. Next came the disappearance of Mrs. Pither, for whom the police searched extensively. The husband declared that he was heart-broken. Mrs. Pither was alleged to have been guilty of false registration of birtlu