At the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Sir Joseph Jonas,
steel manufacturer, a former Lord Mayor of Sheffield, was fined £2,000, and his clerk, C. A. Vernon, £1,000, with the costs of their prosecution, for the misdemeanour of obtaining and communicating to a German customer information, respecting Messrs. Vickers's rifle works at Cray ford, Kent, "calculated to be useful to an enemy." If this bad been done in war time, the offence would have been much graver than it was. The misdemeanour, however, was committed in November, 1913. Apparently Sir Joseph Jonas did not communicate to his German customer information that was not generally known. He answered a trade inquiry by a possible enemy as too many manufacturers aro apt to do. One cannot of course acquit him cf a serious offence. The prosecution may serve tLe public i merest by emphasizing the wide scope of the Official Secrets Act. But when one recalls how in 1914 Krupp's agents were politely shown over several large and im? tent British " plants," this prosecution reminds us that Government Depart- ments themselves failed before the war to distinguish between courtesy and folly.
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