Sig.—In the Sunday Times's hurt leader on the Devlin Report,
after comments on 'the difference of approach between the man of action and the man of law' comes
this sentence: • 'In a criminal case it [a court of law] has to decide whether the evidence justifies a verdict of Guilty : verdict of Not Guilty may be in effect one of Not Proven.'
Now this, with its implication that the Africans were guilty even though they cannot be proved so, seems an altogether questionable form of argument. The last phrase is as true (and as untrue) as 'a verdict of Guilty may be in effect one of Not Disproven' and any extension of this suggestion that what Is Not may he in effect what Is is hardly likely to endear itself either to men of law or men of action. To smear the Report's conclusions with this Not Guilty =Not Proven =Guilty is yet another illustration of this paper's attitude of 'My Government. Right or Not Right!' (Not Right being in effect Right).
At the foot of the leader column, framed in a long black rectangle, is the quotation from Hebrews iii, 8: 'Harden not your hearts.' The Sunday Times evi- dently chooses to ignore what it preaches.--Yours faithfully,
15a Philbeach Gardens, S W5
JEREMY KINGSTON
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