THE HISS TRIAL
SIR,—The suggestion, made in the Spectator of July 15th, that the Hiss trial be dropped because " no new trial will bring conviction of his guilt or innocence to the world" cannot help but greatly shock many of your readers in this country.— Public interest in the case was high, although it did not in my opinion approach " passion" ; but the defence received every consideration and an eminently fair trial. The fact of the matter is that treason has been committed in high places—in one of the self-same places occupied by Alger Hiss. The fact of his having— or not having—committed perjury is of the very gravest importance, and his punishment, should he be convicted, must be certain.
We have had in this country—and I am sure you have had in yours-- many trials that aroused intense public interest, and which were already decided in the popular mind long before the official verdict. In some of these prejudice has caused certain groups to reject that verdict for their own preconceived notion. These experiences, however, are surely no basis fur a decision to abandon all trials, the results of which cannot be sure of public approval. There is, in the eyes of the law, no more reason to let a perjurer go free than a murderer. When the day arrives that " hysteria " can alter the course of justice, as you suggest, we shall indeed have travelled a distance along the road to Communism.—Very
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