1939-04-13 — Page 10

PAGE 2-HÓNGKONG DAILY PRESS.

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TREATMENT OF JEWS

And again—

“THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1939.

Investigated only by special ad- ministrative tribunals in which

*SIMPLE TEST

Hampden refused to pay and was and property. But surely, a critic plows, had broken down mysteri-¡ courts of the land but can be duly proceeded against in the might say, at least since the aboll-ously. Court of Exchequer Chamber and tion of slavery, one's personal by his action vindicated the per- liberty is assured in every civilised

In the sum total of anguish in- quite different tests of legality sonal and political liberties of country? Unfortunately that la Englishmen. On the trial some of not so. Almost daily one reads of cident upon the revolution the and culpability are applied. the Judges preferred their duty to persons arbitrarily arrested, with-valuta episode may not bulk large. the law to their allegiance to the out process of law. imprisoned for Its victims must be counted by the

Under the English system the King, who secured judgment by à years without being brought to tens of thousands while those of liquidation concentration campa to five trial, of mass executions.

test 13 majority of, only seven

a uniform and a simple and man-made famine run intoj That was the last straw on the

millions. But its cruelty was naked une. Every man is answerable to back of a long suffering public.

and unprovoked without a shadow the law but no man is answer- The great Long Parliament assem- It is commonplace nowadays to of "revolutionary" rationalization; able to any other authority and bled and in 1840 passed a statute read of the ains of the fathers bo- its victims drawn from all classes. the complete independence of the vacating and cancelling the judging: visited on the children; and None of the stock excuses for Judiciary and ment and declaring all the pre- the treatment of the Jews in Ger- brutality apply; a dictaterial state Jury wystem are sumclent for ever ceedings contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm, the rights of many, Austria and Italy, not be-merely captured its subjects secret to preserve our personal freedom. In those daya of mordinately. cause they had committed any ly and bled them white for a paltry property. the liberty of the subject crime, but merely because they few million dollars. There was not high taxation which invades and and the Petition "of Right.”

were Jews.. Is terrible proof that even the formality of a decree to diminishes property even after person and property are not safe sanctly the procedure; the victims the owner is dead and buried, it and that barbarism again walks on had come by their valuta legally may seem almost absurd to stress. the earth.

and even under the Soviet law had the principle of English law that

King Charles thereupon hoisted his standard and there began the Civil War which ended in the bat- tle of Preston In 1848 and the execution of the King next year.

Do you wonder, in view of that history, that I am inclined to doubt the sincerity of the King's dying speech?

NOT IN VAIN

The great rebellion had not been in vain. The Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were not revived, Feudal tenures

·

the use of the

I have just been reading a dread-every right to it: the hocus pocus every person has a right of pro

of a" voluntary contribution "perty in his land and his goods, ful book on the Russia of to-day through torture somehow added a right that can only be taken under Josef Stalin from which I depths of ugliness to the ghastly away with his consent.

quote:-

business,

Vladimir Khenkin, a popular comic actor, had a sure-fire "gag." | . POSITION CONTRASTED It meant nothing to the uninitiated, but it convulsed Russian audiences with laughter. There were those in the audiences who winced and only pretended to laugh.”

3

4

It

was

not always sonor alas! is it so to-day in some unhappy coun- tries.

Let us contrast the position

I have already reminded you of wherever the British flag Alles. the case of Ship Money which There no person whether British like Bate's case (the case of Im- subject or resident" allen may be positions) was an attempt by the arrested save on a charge of a Crown' to impose taxation with....... "One night," he said with

breach of the law. "Every person put the authority of Parliament. were abolished. The restrictions straight face, in the course of his who has been arrested must be The assertion of any such pre- which Henry VIII and Elizabeth famous monologue. "I heard had placed on the freedom of the vigorous knock at my door. So I brought before a court without de- rogative right would be unthink

lay and he cannot be imprisoned able to-day and a man's property press, restrictions against which took my little suitcase and went, to unless that court has so ordered. is his own to dispose of as he 'will, Milton had 'pleaded in vain in the open the door."

The propriety of arrest or impri-subject only to taxation and Arcopagitica, were allowed to lapse He paused for the guffaws and sonment can at any time be tested necessity. in 1879 and abolished in 1865. In they always came. The reference by proceedings by way of habeas Taxation can be imposed only 1679 too the Habeas Corpus Act was was to the simple fact (incredible corpus, that high prerogative writ by act of Parliament and as every passed. In 1888 came the revoluto anyone outside of Russia) that which commands a person who is subject is deemed to be present tion and next year William and professional men, engineers, tech- detaining another forthwith to in Parliament and a consent to Mary ascended the throne of Eng-nicians and other pre-revolutionary produce the body of the prisoner everything that is done there, land and the Bill of Rights and intellectuals usually had a few to submit to whatever the judge collective assent of Parliament is the Toleration Act became law. things packed in readiness for the shall consider in that behalf, and equivalent to the individust assent

emergency of

as Lord Ellenborough put it "the of every subject. court ever leans towards Hberty.".

窳 sudden. arrest.

Any night "the wagon" might

The comparatively rare case of Every trial in a British Court is interference with private right held publicly in open court and of property on grounds of neces every man against whom a seriousity for instance where buildings charge is brought is entitled to the have to be demolished to allow

obtain the approval of

Let me remind you of what Macaulay wrote: The highest

arrive, and it was the part of fore- eulogy which can be pronounced on the revolution of 1888 is this sight to have an extra change of underwear, a little dried bread," a that it was our last revolution. few other things that might lighten For the authority of law. for the the burden of imprisonment, al- security of property, for the peace of our streeta, for the happiness 'orways on hand. The possession of verdict of a jury of his peers, Fur- of the widening of a street--müst our homes, our gratitude is due, a token of guilty conscience, except fled arrests are made the person Parliament, and, again, the courts

such a suitcase was certainly not thermore, if arbitrary and unjusti- also under Him who raises and pulls the guilt of being alive, premature arrested has a right to damages have stepped in and declared that down nations at his pleasure, toy literate, and belonging to the against those responsible, and the Long Parliament, to the Con- vention and to William of Orange" Wrong category of human beings. Juries are not slow to mark by the such an alteration of the law to award of heavy damages, their the disadvantage of the subject Most of the educated classes sense of indignation at the unwar./must be effected by express words. and again;the Declaration of Right, though it made nothing were guilty, indeed, of a deep and ranted invasion of personal liberty. Parliament is presumed never to or by necessary implication, for law which had not been law be incurable crime, namely, scepticism.

Some of you may have read the intend an interference with vested fore, contained the germ of the For the most part, they regarded

#CONSCIENCE

law which gave religious freedom the Kremlin's efforts as fantastic, report of a very recent case where rights. Even if it is clear that to the dissenter, of the law which its tempos of industrialization well-intentioned police officers in it has so Intended then the courts secured the independence of the foolhardy and doomed to failure, the course of a very busy day at have introduced a further pre- Judges, of the law which placed the human cost of the whole enter- racecourse arrested two inwardly sumption. that compensation: be the liberty of the press under the prise barbarous. The vague charge reputable but outwardly dishevelled paid in respect of the Inter protection of juries, of the law of "sabotage" under which so many gentlemen on suspicion of larceny ference, which prohibited the slave trade, thousands of them were rounded Their suspicions though natural of the law which abolished the "P, tortured, exlled, and executed proved to be li founded and a jury sacramental test, of the law which amounted, when sifted down to awarded each of the arrested men relieved the Roman Catholics from essentials, to just that ingrained substantial damages. That sort of doubt complicated by discontent publie vindication of personal civil disabilities, of every good law over physical privations and mental liberty could not occur under any which has been passed during

other system of justice, more than a century and a half, of every good law which may here- after in the course of · ages 'be found necessary to promote the public, weal and to satisfy the de- mands of public opinion."

This "historical introduction has, I fear, been unduly long, but I feel that without some picture of the background against which our present liberties have grown up no real"^ conception of their nature or of their inestimable value fa easy or in fact pamibia.

I pass now to consider what our freedom consists in and how it is safeguarded.

reservations.

One need not be guilty of an overt act to have his house searched, himself stuck away -in a foul cell, his family ter-

rorized. An anonymous debug": ciation by someone who "covetëd, his room "or-his job might do it, or the fact that He had been seen playing chess - with someone else who...' was)

denounced...

Of freedom of conscience I need say little. The Toleration Act of 1889 established the great prin- elple, and its extension by the English Law knows no dis-^^ Acts of 1812 and 1855 means that tinction between rich ind« throughout the British Common- poor, Jew and Gentile, official wealth of Nations every person is and unomelal. In the eyes of free to hold the religious belief the law each is free and ben that his conscience dictates," to cause he is free he is a respon-- -

practice that belief so long as he sible citizen" and as wich ans- does not thereby occasion werable to the law for any breach of the peace, and to ex- Infringement of the rights of press that belief publicly so long Kay of his fellow citizens, Not as his expression is not blas- øven the highest omalal in phemous. No person under the the land can, ́aut up: Act of Union Jack is subject to any State(uz his ? Justification "For ⠀⠀⠀ disabilities, nor can he be made to Perhaps his name was listed in

an illegal art- 7:

enner in person or in property, by the address book of a suspected

bellef There is nothing in English reason person, or a second cousin by mar-

most in riage, in the course of interroga furiarudence comparable with the I come

the most tion, had mentioned the relation continental system of administeresting ship. Worst of all, the machines tretive law under which sets done valuable

freedom

It is natural that we should be- he had helped buy or install, after by omcials in the pretended in of speech, gin with the most precious of being manhandled by peasants ac- terests of the State cannot be the pres liberties, the

person customed only to managing wooden] enquire into by the ordinary together

them

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