In the :House of LordS on Tuesday, Lord Charnwood brought
up the'question of the Daily' Herald van case. Lord Charnwood took the iriew, which We' have taken in the Spectator, that the Fascist's were let off much too easily and that there was therefore a pretext for enemies of the Government to say—wrongly, of course—that there had-been political or class favouritism. The Lord Chancellor threw a new light on the matter which " pro- foundly modified " Lord Charnwood's opinion and has, ,w-e gladly admit, similarly modified ours. The Lord Chancellor said that no charge of threatening with a revolver or of intimidation could be made out. We were under the impression that there was no doubt that the driver of the van had been threatened with a revolver. _We have always agreed that the Public Prosecutor could not have done otherwise than withdraw the charge of larceny, which was obviously a wrong charge. Threatening with a revolver, however, is a grave matter, and we are glad to know now that we were more perturbed than we need have been; since the evidence about the use of a revolver 'and about the serious intimidation of the driver was quite insufficient. All that can be said for certain is that a revolver was afterwards discovered in the room of one of the prisoners. The case was scantily reported except in Labour and Liberal newspapers, and it was on their statements that we relied. . . _
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