A most important regarding the ase freedom of the Press has recently been decided in England under the Official Secrets Acts, when the Stockport magistrates fined a porter £5 under the Act for refusing to divulge {he source of gtftain information he had acquired. The case was appealed, and the magistrate's decision was upheld, and now the fight has been taken to Parliament in an endeavour to have the Act amended. The cts of the case afe very simple. On June published an uds on Wo!
Alleged; Man with So: The article amed an almost exact reproduction of a confidential police document circulated on June 14, by the Chief Constable of Southport other forces. Mr. S. H. Booth, managing diter of the "Daily Dispatch," under strong protest, supplied the name of the writer of the article, a Mr. E. D. Lewis, and the police then asked him the source of his information.
This, in accordance with the traditions of hi: profession, the reporter declined to divulge, Police Court proceedings followed, the summons alleging that Mr. Lewis failed to give n demand information in his possession lating to a suspected offence under Section 2 of the O Acts, 1911, contrary 10 Section 6 of the Secrets Acts, 192
Lewis was f ed, appealed against the n and lost, It has to be en ed ion which Mr had, that matter, amounted to no were searching for certain charges, a most ord! news, involving in no way the safe nation—for that is what the two Official Secrets Acts are designed to protect—and an tem similar to a thousand and one others which find their way into the press as an ordinary daily occurence. The decision of the Court of Appeal in this matter is probably à correct interpretation of the law as it stands at present, but it has to be pointed out that its application {e the Press wa contemplated by the Government succeeded in pa sing the Act of 1920.
This is clearly proved by star ment of the then ney General—now -Lord rt, Lord Chief Justice—when the Bill before the House of Commons in that He is reported to have said May I add one word more upon a particular d of objection which, oddly enough, has netiiness been taken to this Bill? It is said als with the Press. That t is ye us connected with he Pre:
10 is quite clear that the Awfnry General should ith them. this
did not think that the Act would apply to the Press, and particularly in such a trivial case s the one which has just been decided, end t is more than probable that assurance, which was then given to the House of Commons, contributed to e passage of the measure, But the legislator proposes and the bureaucrat disposes, and, with so widely 1 drawn p " it has been made possible to appl et to mere trivialities. It may se true that every official document is a secret of state. That oppe 1 the attede taken up by able and he magistrates and court. But if this vie to breva unwarrantable and union: enable restriction n laid upon the nor mal activities of the Press, which would, if ried to the ical cuter enable even minor offi t ud their wor wi a veil of se ey ich the bureaucrat-se dearly loves. Much of the it motion which appears in the paper is obtained from sou which v. mediately be closed were traditional policy of preserving com secrecy te be thrown overboard "Act s desi 1 to protect the interests of the te. It dates from the height of the prewar sp; fave and 'v s intended to protect military-and al secre s and matters.
That it should be u d as it has in this to cover ce information is a monster purely us perversion of iis origin It is understood that purpose government h: d to consider "the advisability ame ing the Act in such a manner as to remove ihis rest ction upon the liberties of ne Press, and t a possibility th the Government fuses to move in matter, Mr. Dingle el Dundee) members f Parlament will consider the introduction of an amending bill under the 10- minute rule. Obviously something will have to be done in the matter, for, whatever the original intentions of the Government were, the fact has now been made plain that the Act in question'cen be applied in a manner calcu ed to repress the full activity of the and prevent that free discussion of press, public matters which alone can act a efficient c tective of the present day o! trend t angers of which have y to by British judges on more than one occasion in the comparative recent past. The duty of the journalist is quite clear. If he comes into ien of information showing that the of and safe! tion is being give the necessary information to the appropriate authorities, but actually to volunteer it. On the other hand he should be entitled to refuse to divulge his sources of information with regard such news as has no special State signifücange, for as the.
Birmingham "Daily Mail" very rightly says:—"The craft of reporting—already difficult enough in this age of continually increasing encroachments on Press freedom—is becoming a bugbear, and to stultify the service which the Press can render to the public is in turn to deprive the public of the right of full knowledge and free discussion." Whether Mr. Dingle Foot succeeds in getting the Act amended or not, the public may rest assured that the British journalist will insist upon his rights in the matter, even if it costs as much as £5 à time. It is not the first time the Press have had tg fight against this form of repression, and it may be readily believed that it will noe lose the battle for fear of fighting.
The Shanghai Directory Attention is called to an announcement aping. in our advertisement columns today ing firms and residents whose names do appear in the current edition of the China Hong List to send in details for inclusion in the half-yearly edition (the Shanghai Directory), to be published early in' July. While this, of course, refers to the whole city, the request is specially made to those firms and residents in the northern and eastern sections who on account of the hostilities were compelled to evacuate their prem but who have now returned and are abolishing re-e: themselves. It is also desired include in to this edition those missionary educational establishments from Nanking, Soochow ud other cities in this province which have temporarily organized in Shanghai, and knowledge of whose whereabouts would. be of real value to many in this city. It may be of general interest to state in this connection that so great was the demand for the annual edition of this popular Directory that the whole issue was completely sold out two months after the date of publication, and number of applications for copies are still being returned unfilled.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.