TREASON BILL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23216, 1 June 1945, Page 6

TREASON BILL

Procedure Modified LONDON. May 30. The Treason Bill, which is to make procedure in the treason trials similar to that in murder trials, came before the House of Lords for the second reading. The Earl of Munsher. moving the second reading, said the Bill made no change' in the law. but as cases of treason might arise in the near future, it was important that the law should be amended to remove all the formality of th • old Treason Acts so that cases could be tried without the necessity of complying with obsolete requirements. Lord Strabolgi said that he agreed with the emendments, as they would enable the Courts to deal more expeditiously with cases as those of William Joyce and Baillie-Stewart. He asked if Colonel R.ockc. who in Italy had committed offences similar to those of Joyce in Germany, was to be brought to trial. Viscount Maugham said the trial of peers by peers was unsatisfactory and costly, and in reply to the Lord Chancellor. Sir John Simon, he said the question of altering the law by peers would be considered. „