4 OCTOBER 1924, Page 3

The story does not end even there. It appeared from

the Attorney-Generars statement on Tuesday that he did not even know what reason Mr. Travers Humphreys had given for the abandonment of the prosecution. Apparently he did not trouble to read the reports: of the case, and learned the nature of Mr. Travers Humphreys' unfortunate announcement a long time afterwards from a speech by Sir John Simon ! Grave questions remain to be answered. If Mr. Campbell was not really the guilty person, why has no action been taken- against the presumably traceable authors of the seditious article ? And why has there been no denial of the statement repeatedly made by Mr. Campbell and his friends that Messrs. Lausbury, Scurr, Purcell,. Maxton and others brought such strong pressure to bear that the prosecution was dropped at the instance of the Government ? Sir Patrick Hastings says that he abandoned it of his own accord. But will the. Government deny that they had some say in the matter ? No one wants unreasonably to harass a Law Officer of the Crown, even when he makes mistakes as bad as these, but the' issues are much more than personal. We know of no episode more humiliating for the whole apparatus of justice.