GENERAL AND JUDGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 204, 30 August 1943, Page 5

GENERAL AND JUDGE

TROUBLE IN HAWAII Recd. 6 p.m. Honolulu, Aug. 26. The Commander of the Hawaiian Department of the United States Army (Lieutenant-General R. C. Richardson) was yesterday fined 5000 dollars for contempt of court by Judge Metzger, of the Federal Court. Today, General Richardson issued a general order positively banning further action in the case. General Richardson was held in contempt for his failure to produce in the court two United States citizens of German extraction who had been interned since the attack on Pearl Harbour and who had issued writs of habeas corpus. General Richardson prefaced his order to-day’ with the statement that a general o*rder has been issued io eliminate interference with the military’ in the performance of their duties for the defence and security oi Hawaii. The order makes any violation by Judge Metzger or anyone else subject to five years’ gaol and a fine of 5000 dollars. It gives a provost judge power to try any civilian judge or member of a civilian court for violation of the order.

JucLie Metzger, commenting on General Richardson’s order, said: “The Stars and Stripes still fly overhead, and the Constitution will be here when the dawn breaks.”

The case is regarded as a test of power between the military and civil authorities in Hawaii. It is expected it will have an important bearing on the fate of 300 persons of Japanese ancestry and a score of Germans who are being held incommunicado by the military.