“APPALLING CRIME”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 61, 15 March 1943, Page 2

“APPALLING CRIME”

AERO FACTORY WORKER VITAL NUT LEFT SLACK. London, Dec. 7. A munition worker. Frank Salt, ageo 32, of Newcastle, was sentenced at Chester Assizes to three years’ penal servitude for an offence which Mr. Justice Charles stated was "vulgarly called sabotage." Salt, an employee at an aero factory in the north-west of England, was found guilty under Defence Regulation 2B of failing to tighten a vital nut on the upper vertical drive of the wheelcase on the aircraft engine. Ot 82 engines examined by the factory’s chief inspector 20 had tne same vital nut slack. Salt, it was alleged, was responsible in each case. Salt denied having done anything deliberately to affect the engines. The Judge said to him: ”1 cannot imagine a more appalling crime. But for the vigilance ol' those whose duty it was to look after these machines the most awful consequences could have taken place. As a result of what you have deliberately done, pilots’ lives might have been lost."