For the evidence was conclusive that the prisoners had committed
the crimes of actively trying, to bring 'about civil war and the overthrow of the Constitution, and for this purpose had tried to seducemen in the Navy, Army and Air -Force. The truth is that Com- munism, as 'it hat heed Preached under the' influence of Moscow, has become illegal because it is an essential part of its propaganda to be 'seditious and to incite to mutiny. It is an unfortunate fact that the word Com: minim], which is noble in itself, should have become bound to such uses. It is in Gibbon's phrase, "a word so innocent in its origin so odious In its applieation." Labour as a whole does not at all sympathize with the illegalities of Communism ; the reason is all the stronger for not giving to Labour; in the course of the events which arc slue to flow from the verdict of Wednesday, the smallest pretext for saying that freedom of speech, as such, is being suppressed. As the recent charge was brought the trial could not have ended otherwise than it did, 'but we hope that care will always be taken to deal only, with obvious and_ extreme cases where the incitements are open. Foolish propaganda which is circulated openly earns a certain ridicule and is much less dangerous than con- spiracies that are driven underground.
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