ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SIR,—A national campaign is about to
be launched with the object of bringing capital punishment to an end at the earliest possible moment. The Executive Committee consists of Canon Collins, of St. Paul's, Gerald Gardiner, QC, Christopher Hollis, Arthur Koestler, Frank Owen and Reginald Paget, QC, MP; and a Committee of Honour is being formed. widely representative of the national life. Among the first members of this committee are Benjamin Britten, CH, Frank Byers, Pro- fessor C. Day Lewis, Jacquetta Hawkes, the Earl of Listowel, Henry Moore, CH, Lord Pakenham, J. B. Priestley, Canon Raven, Moira Shearer, Dr. DOnald Soper and R. R. Stokes, MP.
The campaign will be partly educational : books and pamphlets will be issued and meetings will be organised. But we shall also be concerned to give people already opposed to capital punishment an opportunity for expressing their conscience. We shall suggest, for instance, that abolitionists may think fit to abstain from going to any entertainment or party on the eve of an execution, and may wish to attend a place of worship or assembly (and we shall arrange for such places to be open for the purpose). Other projects are under consideration.
The campaign will be conducted in a reverent spirit; any disruptive or sensational action, such as demonstrations outside prisons, will be rigorously discountenanced.
Considerable funds will be required : and we beg those in sympathy with us to send a contribution, however small (but as large as possible, please), to Mrs. Peggy Duff, National Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, 14 Henrietta Street, London, WC2. People unable to contribute are asked, nevertheless, to send a postcard to Mrs. Duff, putting on it only the word 'Abolitionist,' and the sender's name and address in capitals.— Yours faithfully,
VICTOR GOLLANCZ
Chairman 14 Henrietta Street, WC2
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