1936-01-23 — Page 3

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY, JANUARY

23,

1936.

"CLOSED DOOR" DIVORCE APPEAL. Wife Fails In Interesting Canadian Law Suit

Rules Snow And Flower Kingdom

Flowers and now interminale as Southern California's win- ter sports queen is chosen and ruler of winter sports is pretty Charlotte Hallorno. She'll rule over skiing, skating and tobog ganing in the mile-high regums overlooking Southern California, Fetching, what?

TEACHER

FOR TRIAL SHOOTING CHARGE

ON

GIRL'S STORY OF A GUN

AND A KNIFE

a charge of attempting to murder his former fiancee by ΟΝ

shooting at her through a window with a humane killer, Hugh Williams (22), an assistant schoolmaster, of Ash, was at Sandwich this month committed for trial at the Kent Assizes.

He pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence. Miss Margaret Beer, who is 19. said that she broke off her He was upset and asked engagement to Williams last June. her to think it over.

Since then every time she had been out he had followed her and tried to talk to her.

One Sunday in October she was at home late at night when she heard a knock at the door, which was locked, her parents having gone to bed.

CASE WAS TAKEN TO

PRIVY COUNCIL.

CANADIAN divorce decree granted after a hearing that was alleged to have taken place not in open court, as required by law, was the subject of a judgment de- livered last month by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

The appellant was Mrs. Cora Lillian McPherson and the respondent the Hon, Oran Leo McPherson, who at the time of the divorce proceedings in 1931, was Minister of Public Works for Alberta.

brought a Mr.. McPherson divorce sull in the Supreme Court of Alberta, naming Mr. Leroy The Mattern on co-respondent case was not defended and a de- cree nisi was pronounced.

Married Wife of Co-respondent

of them were not as effective a bar to the access of the library by an ordinary member of the public, ridor, as would be a door actually finding himself in the public cor-

locked.

Describing the position of the at Edmonton, Subsequently Mr. McPherson judges library married Mrs. Helen Mattern, the Alberta, Lord Blanesburgh said it wife of the co-respondent in the was not one of the regular courts divorce sult, and Mrs. McPherson of the Court House there, and, at brought an action in the Supreme the time of the trial, one or more Court of Alberta to have the of the regular courts was avail- divorce decree declared null and able. At Edmonton there was no veid on the ground, as she alleged, taily cause list and no printed or was apparently, ex- progress that the herring was not in open written notice of the business in

hibited.

court.

The Supreme Court dismlased her action, and from this decision she now appealed to the Judical Committee of the Privy Council.

Information on that subject, it' cemed, was obtained from the arderlies in attendance and they apparently would know as much appointed to be the

Ciuse

The appeal, which was dismiss-about n el to-day, was heard before Lord heard, or being heard in Blanesburgh, Lord Macmillan and judges' library, ns about one a

painted to be heard elt where, Lord Wright.

Had the judge, on the occasion. In question, directed the arse to on MAR Lord Blanesburgh, delivering be taken In

mariner, Adegree off Keneral importance were raised by publier vord "have apparently the appeal. The questions dig, had the proceedings. cussed were concerned, widjajatilas degree of publicity for at the trial of dorée suits,

In Judges' Law Library

Judgment, sald questions of wide, courts.

"Private" On Door

Likes School

teacher.

Violet Johnson, 8, of Peach, Wash., must like her Every school day for the past two years she has hiked five miles to catch a school bus and then rude 28 miles to classes. It is believed she sets a record in this day of modern schools and tran- sportation.

Lord Binnesburgh said therei One of the doors In this case it was alleged that was no direct public access to the the proceedings were devoid of judges' library. sufficient publicity-were, in short, approaching it had fixed on it a brass plate with the word "pri- not held in open court. The

was heardate" in black letters, but there

on on this subject. For the rest they was evidence that this word petition for Alyorce

notoriety rather than

normal before Mr. Justin, Tweedie, sit the outer door did not, in fact, hind-believed that it was unhealthy ting in the judges gw library ofer entry to the inner corridor by the court house Edmonton, practitioners and others familiar publicity that he really desired to with the building. The inner door restrict. It could hardly have

been anything else. Alberta.

Their lordships thought that the After taking the evitoje ofor the library was kept open! wilt gen throughont, the husband and two

There remained the serious judge on this occasion, albeit un- called on his behalf, the hig pronounced a decree nisi and g question whether the swing consciously, was denying his court Mr. McPherson the custody of Voigh four children of the marriage, alloors with "private" marked to the public, in breach of their non one of them were not as right to be presenta right ex- elective a bar to the access of pressed by Lord Halsbury in the words: "Every court of justice is j. library by na ordinary mem sons, the youngest then u bos nfị

her of the public, finding him open to every subject of the King." self In the public corridor, as

Public Interest actually would Tocked.

seven.

After the decree had been made absolute, and long after the time] for any appeal from it had ex- pired, Mr. McPherson married Mrs. Mattern, he having obtain ed a divorce from her husband on duct with Mrs. McPherson.

door

1

She asked "Who is it?" and the reply was "Mr. Kemp"--a milkman whom she knew. She opened the door and in walked He referred to a boy friend of felt something pressing into her account of Mr. Mattern's miscon- in attendance at the enurt-house,pečicest-koolfEAT NING PLesna hors who was abroad, and mid neck. "It looked white," she said,

Williams.

that if this boy came to

he would kill them both.

see her "and I thought it was a place of wood. I then saw Williams stand- ing there.

·

"He then told me," she stated, "that he had a gun at his lodgings,

He then left."

"Ile

that,

As A Poor Person

There was perhaps no available way to correct these tendencies more effectively than to require that the trial of these cases should always take place, and, in the fullest sense, in open court.

Their lordships were not surpris- fed to find disclosed in the record On the day of trial, Mr traces of a practice existing in Justice Twedle was not. Edmorton, one pot in their se but, for the convenience of which seemed to regard tồn light- witness who was coming from ly the duty of hearing these suits distance, he arranged to take the in public and with all appropriate It was not until some consider case on that day. It was only ceremony.

pointed that he definitely selected was holding the thing able time afterwards, and during few minutes before the hour ap which I have described and he the hearing of other proceeding, the judges' library as the place

for the first time, it was said: 'I am going to kit you.'

the trial of the for the hearing. On several Sundays in Novem- She quickly stopped into the alleged that

divorce action in the library was

Bona Fides of the Judge ber Williams followed her and "on house and slammed the door. one occasion," she said, "I got "Later, to empty a bottle, I went not a trial in open court. Mrs.

hod beeri granted The proceedings took place dur- vory annoyed and slapped his into the scullery

and up to the McPherson face."

sink, which is against the window. special leave to prosecute this aping the luncheon interval, prob- ably as the most convenient hour another Sho alleged that on

"There was then a crash and a peni as a poor person.

for all concerned. The judge was Sunday he told her, "I intend to bang.

Describing the position of the not robed, nor were counsel.

at Edmonton, kill you this evening." and showed

Her father rushed out and a judges' library

The judge entered the library her what looked like a pruning neighbour phoned for the police. Alberta, Lard Blanesburgh said it

a door accessible only to knife. He asked. "How would you

Williams's landlady, Mrs. Kate was not one of the regular courts from like to die?" She replied, "Not Burch, said that once Williams of the Court House there, and, at judges. He was attended by an very much; I am only 19."

Axid he would like to shoot the the time of the irial, one or more official shorthand writer and by girl, but that he would not because of the regular courts was avail the assistant clerk, a Mr. Mason. he loved every hair of her head.

"Going To Kill You”

Miss Beer said that on Decem- Police said that Williams stat- bor 13 she was just outside the ed: "I did not want to murder her: back door of the house when she only frighten her."

NEW TIES MAY BIND IRELAND, ENGLAND

London, Jan. 15.

able. At Edmonton' there was no

Before taking his seat at the daily cause list and no printed or written notice of the business in head of the table in the library he exhi-stated that he was altting in open progress was apparently

court. He directed Mr. Mason to bited.

open, and to keep open, the door Information on that subject, it leading from the library to the in- seemed, was obtained from the ner corridor, but evidently over- orderlies in attendance and they looked the swing-doar outside, with apparently would know as much its warning against pubile intru-

appointed about a case

to be slon, for he gave no direction in heard, or being heard in the regard to that door, Judges library, as about one up- pointed to be heard elsewhere.

No member of the public en- tered the library while the trial proceeded.

This requirement must be in- sisted upon, because there was no class of case in which the desire of the parties to avoid publicity was more widespread. Again, publicity went far to prevent the trial of these actions where one was superficially so much like another from becom- Ing stereotyped and standardis. ed, so that the ability to dispose of them, with a minimum expen. diture of Judical time, was even now, apparently regarded in some quarters as the convincing test of judical efficiency.

Formality

Moreover, the potential presente of the public almost necessarlly Invested the proceedings with Bome degree of formality, and formality was, perhaps, the only available substitute for the solem While President de Valera of the Irish Free State doggedly

Hind the judge, on the occasion

nity by which, ideally at all events, continues severing nearly every tie between Great Britain and the in question, directed the case to

auch proceedings - especially Their Lordships Lord Blanes where the welfaro of children Emerald Isle, one of his fellow-Irishmen has an idea for bringing be taken in one of the empty the two neighbour islands physically closer together by the con- courts, greater degree of burgh said, desired to affirm their was involved should be charac struction of a submarine tunnel between them.

publicity would have apparently own bellef in the complete bona terised,

Ades of the judge in everything ho attended the proceedings.

did on this occasion.

no

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His idea is to run a tunnel under that the money woukt be quite as judges library. One of the doors of regard for the feelings or in trial of this divorce action than the narrowest part of the channel well used in providing employment approaching it had fixed on it a deference to the position of Mr. has obtained in the courts below.

bruse

tho plate with

word McPherson. separating southern Scotland from in this manner

Influenced by those considera- other. as in any Ireland, a distance of about fifteen On the other hand, it is reported there was evidence that this word cedure adoptod was traceable to impelled to regard the inroad upon "private". In black lotters, but

The suggestion that the pro tions, their lordships have felt Dr sixteen miles. He revealed that the very mention of such a recently that eminent engineering plan for providing a closer link be- on the outer door did not, in fact, the fact that Mr. McPherson was a the rule of publicity made in this unconscious though it experts had examined the prospects tween John Bull and "John Bull's hinder entry to the inner corridor Minister of the Crown, was one instance,

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It-should-bo-definitely repelled. ---"Their lordships are of opintow started, however, it would be necesis on the far side of the Irish Sea There remained the serious

Their lordships unreservedly ac. that this appeal should be dis sary to make complete borings on and have no desire to bring him question whether the swing doors both sides of the channel;

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