“WORST CASE YET”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 111, 15 May 1942, Page 3

“WORST CASE YET”

SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY PRINTER SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS (P.A.) Wellington, May 14. “This is, I think, the worst case of subversive activity of all those that have come before me,” said the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in the Supreme Court today, in sentencing Michael Young, aged 25, printer, to two years’ hard labour for subversion. His Honour said there were four I separate statements, each of which I reeked of subversion. “Probably the worst is the one under the title of ‘Find the Traitor,’ in which you charge the British Government with a deliberate betrayal of the French and leaving them in the lurch,” continued His Honour. “That is the very language that Laval is reported to be using for the purpose of inciting the French people against the British. You have yourself said, when asked if you had anything to say why sentence should not be passed on you, that what you have done you did deliberately. You cannot therefore complain if you are classed by your ■ fellow-citizens as a disciple of Laval, and if all the implications cf that classification are attributed to you. “You may or may not be a conscientious objector—l emphasise the word conscientious—but I should think that a really conscientious objector would at least avoid fouling his own nest, for, as the saying goes, it is an ill bird that does that. “Your appropriate punishment, in my opinion, would be incarceration lor the duration of the war, and deprivation of civil rights for a lengthy period, for it is paradoxical to my mind that a person who not only refuses to help his country and the men who are lighting to save its freedom, but actually does his best to injure it and them, should have the right by his vote to take part in the ordering of the lives of ' those men on their return ito the Dominion. But the law as it now a stands does not permit of that punishment being imposed. ■‘The maximum punishment for ai ;offence under the Emergency Regu- . : lations is twelve months’ imprison -1 ment. But you have been fount ' guilty of more than one offence, ant may be punished accordingly. Tin -'sentence of the Court is that on th? -1 second count of the indictment yen .-j be imprisoned and kept to hard lai- j hour for the term of twelve month i anti that on each of the fifth, eighth -■ and tenth counts you be imprisonc? ,-jand kept to hard labour for the like e i term of twelve months, these- last I mentioned sentences to run concur- ! I rently, but to be cumulative will ’-j ..e sentence passed on the seconc y| count—that is to say, 24 months ii