REFUSAL TO REGISTER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144854, 4 December 1915, Page 5

REFUSAL TO REGISTER.

CHAPLAIN’S WIFE FINED. For refusing to fill up or cause to bo filled up a registration form, Mrs. Lily Girdlestono, wife of the Rev. A. E. Girdlestone, chaplain of Stapleton Workhouse, was recently summoned at Bristol. Mr. J. Green, who prosecuted, said a form was sent to the lady and she returned it unsigned. Another form was sent by post, and the penalty was pointed out ii she failed to fill it up. She returned it blank, with the following letter; — “I am sorry to have troubled'you to send another form. Firstly, lam a Christian woman, and I am totally opposed to war* or the taking of human life in any form. You will therefore seo that it is impossible for me to fill in the enclosed. Secondly, X have no vote, and therefore I am not a citizen, and if you have a, grain of justice or logic you will see that X ought not to be classed with idiots and aliens.” The presiding magistrate told Mrs. Girdlestoue that she was defying the law, and they were there to enforce it. would be fined 50s on that occasion. ■ She was liable to be brought there again, and the penalty was £1 a day if she did not fill in the form. Mrs. Girdlestoue .said she would not pay a penny. The clerk informed her that a distress would be levied, and that failing that 21 days’ imprisonment was the alternative.