Pioneer

Tonyrefail "Distribution" Charges. I CASES DISMISSED BY STIPENDIARY. I NOTHING PREJUDICIAL TO RECRUITING At Forth Police Court on Thursday, July 6, T. J. Williams, Prifcehazcl Street, Tonyrefail, was charged under the Defence of the Realm Act, Regulation Q7, with having under his con- trol certain documents containing statements, the publication of which would be likely to pre- judice recruiting.—-Margaret Williams, his sis- ter and two schoolboys, were charged with dis- tributing the papers. P.C. Bairnett was the f.rst to give, evidence for the prosecution. He stated that on June 5 he was at High Street, Tonyrefail when he saw the boy Tom Gibbs distributing from house to house a paper ealled. "The Tribunal" He at. once took possession^ the copies the boy had' and read oiie, and took exception to certain statements in the paper. Then he took them down to the Police Station and handed them to P.S. Watkins. Mr Idris Price, solicitor for the defence, then cross-examined P.C. Barnett. Mr Price: Have you read the Tribunal"?— P.O. Barnett: Yes. Do you know that it is a newspaper ?-No. You say you have read it; do you know the price of itF-—They are given away; they are never sold. You are taking exception to some part in it; will you tell us what part or statement you object to?—The first thing that caught my eye was "Our Case." Mr Price: Tell us what part you think wrong ?—Barnett (embarassed): Many parts; Sergeant Watkins will tell you. Stipendiary: You took the paper for an an- alysis to Sergt. Watkins. (Laughter.) Sergt. Watkins then gave evidence. He stated that on June 5 lie made inquiries at Tom Young's house in Pritchard Street as to where he (the boy) had the Tribunals" for distri- bution. The boy answered With Miss Wil- liams He then went to Miss Williams' house and asked her it she had given the pap- ers for distribution, to which she replied, "Yes, we send them out weekly." He then asked her if she knew what was in them, to which she re- plied, "No, I have not read them." He then said to her that he was taking exceptions to certain statements in the paper, and that lie was going to send them away to see what the authorities would say about them. She then said Alright, you can do as you like about it." He then asked if Williams (her brother) was at home. "He is in work," was her reply. At 11.45 he re-visited the house to see T. J-. Wil- liams, whom he cautioned, and asked if he had given the" Tribunals" to his sister for distri- bution, to which he replied, Yes, I am the only one responsible for the issue of th-e Tri- bunal,' which I send out weekly." He then told Williams that he took exception to certain statements in the paper, and that he was going to report it, to which Williams replied, It is strange that they have not taken exception in higher quarters than at Tonyrefail. He then totd Williams that it was the distribution that he was concerned about. Mr Idris Price then cross-examined the Ser- geant. Mr Price: What part do you take exception to, Sergeant?—P.S. Watkins: I have marked out the passages. He then handed the marked copy to the Sti- pendiary, and after giving a copy to Mr Price he intimated to him the marked passages. Mr Price then asked him if he meant that he took exception to the paragraph headed Our Case." to which he replied "Yes." Mr Price: Our Case" is part of a speech by Mr Bodkin; I suppose you have a slight idea of who Mr Bodkin is?—P.S. Watkins-. I have a slight idea. (Laughter.) Mr Price: You would not prosecute Bodkin for making the statements, would you? And a good reason why. (Laughter.) Mr Price: Another is the paragraph below headed by the Fellowship?—Yes. Mr Pri ce: It reads like this: "None of us, inside or outside the Fellowship, desire to ad- opt unconstitutional tactics or to break the law." Do you object to that?—I mean the whole of the reading, and the tenor of the column. Mr Price: Another passage, "Wait and See," is from the Advocate of Peace. What is it that you see wrong in that? It The Stipendiary (to Sergeant Watkins): You say that what you have marked in the Tri- bunal" is likely to prejudice recruiting?—Yes. The Stipendiary: I have not seen one before no one has sent me one; and I cannot read it all here now. Mr Price: I have a submission to make on a point in the summons of the principal case. Stipendiary: We will take the principal case first, then. Mr Price then put forward his contention that the Tribunal" was a newspaper already pub- lished, and not a document which, if published, would be likely to prejudice recruiting, etc. He read from the regulations the definition and meanings given to documents, and after con- siderable search through the regulations by the Deputy Chief Constable and the Stipendiary, the latter stated that it was evident by the regulation that the "Tribunal" was not a do- cument and after asking the Deputy if he wished to bring any o ?h,? evidence, he cKs- missed the case of Williams. Mr Price then submitted his defence of the three others. He contended that the boys were too young to know what was in the paper, and that within the meaning of the regulations he did not think that they should be subject to prosecution. As to Miss Williams he thought that there was some mistake as to the sum- mons. He then called Miss Williams to the witness box. and asked her if she had given the witness boxs. to the boys, to which she an- T ri b una l swered No, but I told the Sergeant that I had given, them to shield my brother." Who't h c-,n. gave them to the ooys — She replied "My niece Charlotte. And after being cross-examined by the Depu- ty Chief, the Stipendiary said that he could not read all the evidence then, but he would go into it carefully and give his decision on the fol- lowing Wednesday, July 12, at Pontypridd, the case being then adjourned. At the adjourned hearing of the ease on Wednesday, the Stipendiary (Mr D. Ll. Thomas) gave his. decision in the oases of Miss Williams and the two bpys, who were charged with dis- tributing printed publications likely to pre- judice recruiting, etc., the Stipendiary stated that, in his opinion, neither of the defendants were legally responsible as Regulation 27 did not apply to general distribution but to the author or publisher.. He further stated that in his opinion this copy of the Tribunal" did not contain any statements likely to prejudice re- cruiting, etc., but would be likely to have the opposite effect, inasmuch as it was largely com- posed of statements respecting the treatment meted out to Conscientious Objectors by the military authorities. He stated that so far as he could judge that the statements contained in too Tribunals were direct appeals to those who were already holding anti-militarirt views, and did not in any way appeal to those who were in favour of war. He stated that one passage came very near the border line to being prejudicial to recruiting; But being that it re- ferre,J to war. in general, and not to this war in particular, he himself could not feel justified in condemning it. The passage referred to was the inset entitled Our Case," being part of a statement by Mr Bodkin, Public Prosecutor. AH the defendants were dismissed.

The TEMPLE TRAMROADSIDE NORTH, The Platform will be occusied NEXT SUNDAY, July 16th, by MR. J. J. MORSE Editor of "Two Worlds." Services at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. On Tuesday, July 18th, the Annual Outing will be held at Church Tavern, Vaynor. Hearty invitation to all I J——»

Why the Essex Hall Meet- ing was Cancelled. Sir, —On Tuesday evening, July 4, 1916, a meeting had been arranged to be held in the Essex Hall, London, under the auspices of the City of London Branch of the Independent Labour Party, to consider the administra- tion of the Military Service Acts to be address- ed by Sir William P. Byles, M.P., Mr Joseph King. M.P.; Mr Fred Bramley, Rev. Walter Walsh, D.D., Miss A. Maude RQyden, and Miss Marie] Mattel's. Mr King having consented to move the following resolution — That this public meeting, held under the auspices of the City of London Branchrof the l.L.P. records its most emphatic protest ag- ainst the scandal of the administration of the Military Service Act, especially as regards those appearing before the Tribunals as Con- scientious Objectors, and calls upon the Gov- ernment forthwith to set up machinery for removing from military custody all those men who have proved their sincerity by their wil- lingness to undergo the penalties imposed on them for their beliefs; and is further of op- inion that merely to transfer men frem mili- tary to civil prisons is to perpetuate the per- secution by penalising men for sincere adher- ence to doctrines which no right-minded peo- ple can consider criminal. As has already been announced in the press, the meeting was not held, but in the opinion of the Committee responsible for organising the meeting, some further public statement is ne- cessary regarding the circumstances under which a perfectly lawful meeting, convened for an en- tirely legitimate purpose, was compelled to be abandoned. In its issue of Wednesday, July 5, 1916, the day following that on which the meeting was to have been held, the Daily Express" stated as follows:- Two or three hundred persons, including a n;m/ber of soldiers, waited for some time with the object of protesting if any attempt were made to hold the meeting, and a few police- men were in attendance." There can be little doubt that this considerable crowd of would-be "protesters," including "a number of soldiers," were gathered together as a direct consequence of the incitement to viol- ence and the break-up of the meeting, in the shape of articles and letters from correspon- dents printed in a number bi London evening and morning Tory newspapers of the screech- owl type. Some of the mischievous paragraphs were quite ingeniously worded, and it would pro- bably be argued with success in a court of law that persons were only urged to attend the meeting and vote down" certain alleged reso- lutions but the intention of them was suffi- ciently obvious, and they apparently produced precisely the result they were intended to prod- uce. One evening journal, which had printed a mendacious letter from a notorious meeting- smasher, telephoned me the next morning and coolly informed me that "there was going to be a TOW" at the meeting. Whether this sort of action is in accordance with the best traditions of journalism, I wiM leave others to judge. Nor was the incitement to violence con- fined to the press. On the evening the meeting was to have been held there were distributed in the Strand numbers of stencilled typewritten slips of paper bearing the following legend "To all medical students and other loyal Britishers. A meeting willl take place to- night at 7 p.m. at Essex Hall Strand, under the auspices of the Stop the W,14" Party. You are requested to bring your little Union Jacks and say God Save the King.' In view of the practical certainty that to proceed with the meeting would result in serious disturbance and personal injury to law-abiding citizens, it was decided, after a consultation be- tween the promoters of the meeting and a, rep- resentative of the Trustees of Essex Hall, that, in order to avoid any breach of the peace, the meeting should be cancelled. This, in itself, may seem an incident of small importance, but it should not be forgotten that the spirit of intolerance grows by what it feeds upon. The spirit which hates freedom of speech so much that it is determined to prevent it, whatever foul means it is necessary to resort to, will giow unless it is sternly checked by the spirit of Democracy. The position we are faced with at the present time, when the right of public meeting and free expression of opinion is in grave danger between the upper and nether millstones of Governmental interference and mob violence, cannot be a matter of indifference to Democrats, of w hatever shade of opinion. There must be a rally in defence of free speech, lest, while we are fighting for liberty 013 the Continent of 4jiirope and in the uttermost parts of the earth, we lose. one by one, all our cherished traditional liberties at home. — Yours faithfully. HERBERT BRYAN Secretary, City of London Branch of Inde- pendent Labour Party.

Abercanaid Peace Meeting DIKFCUTUR OF EDUCATION CANCELS SCHOOL. The Mwthyr rxliication Committee on Mon- day refused to allow the Abercanaid Schools to be used on Monday evening for a Peace Meet- ing which the Hon. Bertrand Russell was ad- vertised to address. Mr. Rhys Elias (Director of Education) said he had withheld permission to use the build- ings when he discovered from the press and the advertisement hoardings the nature of the pro- posed meeting sas he felt the members of the Education Committee might be divided on the matter. (Hear, hear.) Coun. L. M. Jones, who made application to the Director for the use of the schools, said he could not see why the objection was raised. We are all out for Peace," he protested. Coun. Marsh: Not Peace at any price, though. The prohibition, thought Coun. Jones, was very hard, whilst the people of Abercanaid were as capable of conducting themselves properly as those of any other part of the country. The Director said his action was not due to personal opinion. He thought he was carrying out the wishes of the Committee. Ald. Charles Griffiths: Is it a fact that some- one approached you? Director: No. Coun. Francis said the meeting was, not can- celled until Friday, and other than the schools there was no convenient building in the village. He saw the Town Clerk with a copy of the Pioneer" 111 his hand enquiring for Mr Rhys Elias last week. It was not fair that this meet- ing after being advertised, should be stopped. Mr D. Davies said he did not understand why the authority should deny the freedom of speech in this borough of all in England. "There's something at the back of this business. If you don't give Peace Meetings fairplay to vent their ideas, they will find vent elsewhere." On the matter being put to the vote, 10 were for the meeting being held and 11 against.

Theatre Royal. Lew Lake is to be congratulated on having secured The Story of the Angelus," and, perhaps, even more, on having the clever, young authoress caste in the leading role. It is not often that one comes across a happy med- ium between the serious plays which people will not attend, and the arrant nonsense which peo- ple will sit through with enthusiasm—and I candidly confess to going with the crowd in this — and when one does come across such a halfway house, one has the right to wax en- thusiastic. Because, from its nature journalism lives in the comparative, and makes very fre- quent incursions into the superlative, it is dif- ficult when one has something to wax enthusias- tic about, to restrain the risk of over-doing it and sacrificing convincing phrases to stridency. If I were asked why "The Story of the An- gel us" has made,such a powerful appeal to me I should find it difficult to give a short an- swer. Some plays appeal because the villainy is splashed about with a big brush some be- cause a heart-breaking mother moves us to tears with supplications to heartless wretches over her eh--eild' I and some because a weak plot, and sugary dialogues have been bolstered up with burlesque humour. Such plays, and they are well in the majority these days, strike one because of some unusually gocd work on the part of some solitary individual in the caste, and they are. forgotten a week after thev have left a town. The Story of the Angelus" will live in memory, and 1 venture to hope, will make many return visits to Merv thvr. It is a strong story, not builded on romance, but always in touch with the living facts of every-day life. Its villainies are not the blood-curdling impossiblities of stereotyped drama, but the natural villainies that arise out of the humanity of our passions—if such may be declared villainies. "Angela's" great sin is an every-day sad sin. because we are what we are her deceptions are but coun- ter-parts of those we play ourselves; and the treachery of "HEinrich" is a treachery that is as old as the hills, and as frequent as the winds. The whole story is good, and it, is told in crisp, gripping dialogues and natural situa- c,risp" I'lli p p? n(, tions I am looking forwalrd to seeing the name of Miss Dorothy Mullord figure largely in the playwrights' calendar of artistes. Young as she is, her work has the individuality, the finish and the appeal that one associates only with names like Galsworthy. As an actress, too, she is a natural fluent player in a difficult part; and it is her very art in sinking herself in the part of Angela that carries home to one the lesson of Angela's "sin." Herbert Pearson is the Ger- man absolutely—the Prussian if you will lead astray by Bernhardi's philosophies but he is also human in the character of Capt. Heinrich. line Morden, as Emile Vinelle. is a soldier of Belgium fired with the devotion of King Al- bert's army, and yet revealing ever the love of home and place of the man, and Will Hook, who as secret service man playing Simple Simon sus- tains the "funny" passages, has a. great deal to do with the success of the play- and one is pleased when his ambition is realised in the con- sent of Lilian Drake, as "A nnette," to share his life, as she has hitherto shared his task of providing the lighter elements in a picture which might else have been too heavy. The work of Lena Naze by, Gwendoline Verschoyle .Fred Clifford and Val Gurney ibevond cavil. The staging is far and away better than one e )V- peets for touring companies. Next week, Mr Pitt Hardacre's company of London artistes are coming in that ever- popular "East Lynne." The play is too well- known to need comment on here. Suffice it to say that the company which visits Merthyr is the same that has appeared in manv of the Metropolitan theatres, that has played before Royalty, and that includes such deservedly le- vered names as J. Lester Williams, Henry W. 'U' ss -E?tliel Ha?r(ia?e,re and Monte, Joe Rowlands, Miss Ethel Hardacre, and Miss Athalie Hill and Little Cora Handel. I PLAYGOER.

I DOWLAIS Iv\TAL ACCIDENT AT THE WORKS.—A verdict of Accidental Death was returned at an io- quest held at the Dowlais inn, on Monday, on Levies (18), a loco, fireman at the Dow- ais \\oiJ,s, who was killed on Friday whilst fol- lowing ,us employment. It appeared from the evidence that on Friday deceased was stood by the engine on the narrow guage pulling at a rail connected with the mould carriage, when it gave way, and he fell across an adjoining permanent way, and was struok by the buffer of the first of two waggons which were being let down the line to clear the line so that a crank shaft could he brought down to the fitting shop. The front wheels of the first waon passed over Davies. The waggons had run a.bout 80 yardts on eased brakes before they ssrnck deceased. They had been preceded by an employee who found the road clear. Com men- ting on the evidence, the Coroner observed that it appeared to him to be a "sheen piece of misfortune" that the rail should give way just when it did. SUNDAY SCHoor ANNIVERSARY.—The Dowlaie Wesleya-ns held their Sunday School anniversary on Sunday last. The special pfreaeheir for the day was the Rev. R. E Roberts, B.D., Ponty- piridd. In the morning and evening Mr Rob- erts delivered messages which will live in the thought of the church. The preacher's quiet, earnest manner and forceful speech gripped the attention of his hearers. The afternoon meeting was wholly occupied by the children, who also "iook part ,in the morning and even- ing. The following are the names of the child- ren who took part in the order in which they appear on the prog¡ra:mme -Maggie Davies Irene Sweet; Muriel Davies; Jennie Webb; Cecil Budden Vera Gazey; Percy Budden; Lily Simmons; Doris Simmons; Edith James; Oliver Hatton Jenny Webb; Dollie Jones; Annie Mot- low; Doris Budden; Phyllis Davies Cyril Jones, Eva Wiltshire; Joseph Motlow; Frank Davies; Vera Goodwill; Maggie Williams; Don's Good- will Dttvid Mathias Tydfil James Muriel Sweet; Morwood Condiend Gazey. Tbo children performed their part with an excell- ence which maintained the best traditions of tho school. The children were trained by Mrs. Walton, Miss Webb and Miss Cook. The musical arrangements were in the hands of Mr Oliver and Mr Hut ton, and were carried through with good taste and effect. SUNDAY SCIIOOI, TREAT.—The Dowlais Wes- leyan Sunday School treat was held at Boly- gaev on Thursday, July 6. The weather was unfavourable, but that did not prevent the children having a good time, though most of it was spent indoors. A band of willing work- ens provided tea, and kept the children inter- ested in games and sports. These, with general good humour, defeated the spoil-sport weathei, and made the outing a happy one.

1 W HELP THOSE WHO HELP Im YOUR RAPER1 k