A CASE OF HYPOCRISY

The servile and malleable leader writers of Fleet Street suffered a serious attack of indignation last week. The spasm seized them late on Friday. It came from Rhodesia, where Peter Niesewand, a journalist, had been jailed by the racialist lan Smith regime.

settin aff Unders especially upsetting. Under orders their Tory editors the leader writers had been delicately rehabilitating "traitor' Smith ready for a possible deal between his government and their own. Now there was a nasty blot on the entente.

But diplomacy was cast aside. There were important principles involved.

JUSTICE, for example. The charges against Niesewand were secret. His trial was secret. The judgement was secret.

There was FAIR PLAY. Niesewand was a liberal yet he got hard labour and his wife was suffering.

The pens raged into action. 'The Guardian':

• unbelievably savage. On reflection we can find better words. His trial was held in secret so that neither we nor anyone without access to him can have any knowledge of the detailed charge or of the evidence.

: • In its political secution of Niesewand the Rhodesian government has once again shown its peculiar combination ruthlessness and ineptitude.' "The Times':

'But the charges brought against Mr Niesewand remain a Rhodesian official secret and the whole of the trial, ending in a two-year prison sentence, was held in camera, which completely abrogates the requirements of natural justice.

• • The development of the judiciary under the Rhodesian Front is not such as to allow any claim that the confidence should be placed in a continuing British tradition. This has been a secret trial from first to last in quite another tradition.' Daily Telegraph':

The Rhodesian magistrate's judgement, deplorable as it might be, was delivered in Left: Peter secret, and the charge itself under the Official Secrets Act was never published. This evidence of the furtive courses into which Rhodesian justice has descended must cause grave concern to all who have the good name and constitutional health of Rhodesia at heart.

.. it is also difficult to imagine the national security required the degree of secrecy which blanketed these proceedings, any more than the ridiculous regulation that prevented mention of Mr Niesewand's name when he was detained.' 'Sun':

'His trial was secret no evidence has been published to tell the world anything at all about his alleged offences.

'Rhodesia is making new approaches for a settlement with Britain. We must not even talk. ... 'Daily Express':

'And the manner of his arrest, his detention in solitary confinement without charge, and his secret trial for undisclosed offences falls far short of accepted standards of British justice.' •... falls far short of acceptable standards of British justice' this glib passage from the 'Express' fairly summed up the orgy of protest. The phrase also indicates another affliction Jalled in Modesia. Hignt: Meter Niesewand's wite and mother after the of leader writers-amnesia.

An imaginary exchange will illustrate the point.

Question: What country besides Rhodesia has laws for trials in secret?

Answer: Britain.

Question: What country can jail people indefinitely without trial or charge?

Answer: Britain.

Question: What country has set aside special concentration camps to hold people without trial or charge?

Answer: Britain.

Question: What country admitted men were systematically beaten, subjected to i 'noise machines' , stood hooded for long periods of time in uncomfortable positions, subject to mental and physical cruelty and generally humiliated? Answer: Britain.

Question: What country held an inquiry into these methods, established they were being used, but passed them off as ill-treatment and not torture? Answer: Britain.

Question: What country still holds people without charge or trial, holds trials in complete secret and tortures prisoners?

Answer: Britain.

Question: What ruling class passed on the methods of secret trial, torture and police brutality to Africa?

Answer: British. Question: In what country does the Press unanimously support these methods in the 'national interest'?

Answer: Britain.

Under the Northern Ireland Special Powers Act (recently revamped) the British army, police and judiciary have a brief to terrorize a whole section of the population.

Hundreds of men and women have been interned in camps, without trial or charge. They are tortured (or 'ill-treated' as the Compton report would have it) and when they are 'tried', it is in complete secret. Charges and evidence never reach ears outside the tin shack that serves for a court.

On August 9, 1971, the British army launched a pogrom against the Roman Catholic population of Northern Ireland. Hundreds of men were dragged from their beds and their families in the small hours. They were interned, without charge, without reason and, of course, without trial.

And what did the British Press think about this massive 'abrogation of natural justice'?

On internment The Guardian' (Niesewand—' unbelievably savage') wrote: . . . Inevitable ... it may not work quickly and it may not work at all... it represents the only hope of preventing a total catastrophe in Ireland.' In later editorials *It has been said that the news reflects the society which produces it, but surely our nation is not as bad as the picture painted by certain newspapers.' What is the 'imbalance' which the censorious Snook is complaining about? He explains:

I do not believe that it is and feel that it is time the news media stopped pressing the views of an offensive minority.' Such language! Who is this 'offensive minority? Does he mean the secret group of mystics who run around in black clothing with beads and icons around their necks and hold witchdoctoring seminars very early on Sunday mornin gs in empty buildings? 'ASHAMED' Hospital workers in west London ann furious that aon are SHOLINT top National Union of Public Emsentence was passed. 'The Guardian' defended torture saying troops-who were doing a fine job-needed to use 'unorthodox' methods against 'terrorists' 'The Times' (secret trials against 'natural justice') on internment wrote: 'In our view it is absolutely necessary to combat terrorism in Northern Ireland by imprisonment without trial.' The 'Daily Telegraph' ('the furtive courses into which Rhodesian justice has descended') on internment wrote: 'Long overdue to the outraged citizens of Ulster and the hard-pressed army ... internment is the last real weapon. •• The 'Daily Mail' on internment wrote: "The introduction of imprisonment without trial could • no longer be delayed.' Not once has the national Press, outside the papers of the movement thun- dered forth musTicE in the name of the tortured, imprisoned, oppressed people of Northern Ireland.

So the Niesewand scandal showed the British Press at its most corrupt and hypocritical.

To bourgeois journalists a principle is no more than a phrase, a neat line, a debased verbal morality at the service of the capitalist ruling class they serve so devotedly.

They excelled themselves Friday.

ployees official attended sherry party given by hospital management. Mrs Esther Brookstone, West London branch secretary, accepted a hospital invitation to celebrate' the minimum amount of disruption during the one-day stoppages.

The party took place at Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham, and was hosted by Mr Frank Hart, secretary to the Board of Governors.

Mrs Mary Stewart, chairman of the Board of Governors, attended the party, as did union shop stewards at the hospital and Mrs Ruth Woollerton, branch chairman.

Following an outcry from the rank and file in West London, NUPE has written to Mrs Brookstone demanding an explanation.

'We are getting repercussions,' a spokesman said. 'Some branches have said "she ought to be ashamed of herself"?