HC Deb 16 September 1915 vol 74 cc148-9
14. Sir WILLIAM BYLES

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what Minister was responsible for the recent raid on the offices of the "Labour Leader" in Salford, and for the abortive prosecution which followed; and will he indicate the opinions or language of the articles attacked which induced the prosecution to ask for the exclusion of the public from the Court?

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL (Sir Edward Carson)

On the 18th of August last the police, acting under a warrant issued by the stipendiary magistrate at Salford, in pursuance of Regulation 51 A, made under the Defence of the Realm Act, seized certain copies of the "Labour Leader," and sevenal thousand copies of pamphlets, as containing infringements of Regulations 18 and 27. Under the said Regulation 51 A, the said copies and pamphlets were brought before the stipendiary magistrate on a summons asking for their destruction. After hearing the parties, the magistrate ordered the destruction of about 7,000 copies of various pamphlets, some of which he described as poisonous. He also ordered the typesetting of one pamphlet to be distributed and returned to the owner, subject to their undertaking not to use it for printing the same publication. As to the copies of the "Labour Leader," as the owner stated that an advertisement suggesting people should not work in the production of war material would not appear again, and as the magistrate was informed—though erroneously—that another article complained of had already passed the French Censor, he ordered the copies to be restored to the owners. There was no abortive prosecution, and the trial was heard in camerâ by order of the magistrate. The Attorney-General is the Minister responsible.

Sir W. BYLES

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that the suppression of honest opinion is often more dangerous than the expression of it?

Mr. PRINGLE

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the action taken in this case is in accordance with the undertaking given by the Home Secretary in the course of the Debate on the Defence of the Realm Act, when he said that no attempt would be made to suppress the expression of opinion?

Sir E. CARSON

This is a great deal more than the expression of opinion.

Mr. HOGGE

May I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman has read the pamphlets, and whether he can state from his experience that they were poisonous?

Sir E. CARSON

I read some of them, and may I say that the German papers have described the "Labour Leader" as a "wholesome study."

Sir J. D. REES

May I ask, in this connection, whether any action is contemplated against the hon. Member for Leicester?

Mr. KING

Has the right hon. Gentleman's attention been drawn to the remark of an eminent legal authority, in another place, against the suppression of public inquiries of this kind?

Sir E. CARSON

Yes, Sir, and I entirely disagree with him.