The Home Secretary stated in the House of Commons on
Monday that he had ordered an inquiry into the recent arrest of Sir Leo Chiozza Money in Hyde Park. This is satisfactory as the public are undoubtedly perturbed by the series of prosecutions for offences in the streets or the parks which have broken down through faulty evidence. Counsel for Sir Leo Money used an argument which was a humiliating one for London when he assumed as a matter of course that it was unwise for Sir Leo Money to sit in Hyde Park at night with a respectable woman. Misgivings were aroused, too, by the discoverY that though Sir Leo Money asked at the time of his arrest that a casual onlooker should be called in as a witness this request was refused. It is often said, and, of course, there is point in the objection, that if independent evidence it to be regarded as indispensable to a police prosecution there will be hardly any convictions. Passers-by are always reluctant to be " mixed up " in such cases. When Sir Leo Money was arrested, however, an independent witness was- standing by and spoke to Sir Leo Money, -and yet was not even asked whether he was willing to cone forward. _There is evidently material for inquiry, and it will be something gained if the inquiry ends merely that better lighting of Hyde Park which the Home Secretary himself has proposed.
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