THE TRIAL OF DINUZULU.
• [To Till EDITOR OF TIER 'SPECTATOR "l am disappointed that so little attention has been aroused by a short dialogue in the House of Commons on March 4th between Mr. Winston Churchill and one or two Members of Parliament, from which it appears that the Zulu chief, Dinuzulu, is now in prison on a charge of murder, rebellion, and conspiracy, and that, according to the Colonial Secretary, "these general charges have not been amplified by any specific facts as to whom he is accused of inciting to murder, or who was the person murdered, or when the incitement was given, or in what the acts of treason, sedition, rebellion, &c., consist." This vague indictment, we are told, will become definite if the examining Magistrate decides that .a prima' -facie case exists for committal; but surely a prisoner thus charged will enter on his trial at an enormous disad- vantage. A preliminary investigation ending in an adverse decision will act on many minds as a verdict, on all as a strong address from the Bench against acquittal; and what lawyet; will undertake defence against such an indictment, or what will be the chance of an accused person permitted to begin his defence only at this stage? The law which authorises such procedure is not what Englishmen should call a law; it is merely the result of a proclamation by the Governor in Council. England cannot abdicate the responsibility for such conditions; it remains a moral when it has ceased to be a legal claim. We may strive in vain to preserve our
delegates and their victims from the injustice that is born of panic, but not to strive at all is to render ourselves their
Previous page
