Judge McCardie’s case

IN dealing with the very important motion of which Mr Lansbury has given notice in the House of Commons, urging that a humble address be presented to His Majesty, praying him to cause the removal of Mr Justice McCardie from the Bench on the ground that he is unfit to carry out judicial duties, it is necessary to remember that it was a Liberal newspaper which first made this proposal. In an article which has been summarised in a special cable published by one of our Bombay contemporaries, this influential Liberal journal suggested that the Judge should be removed from the Bench by a vote of the two Houses of Parliament. This origin of the proposal is very important, because it can only mean that if the resolution is actually moved, as we trust it will be, it will have not only Labour but also Liberal support. Of course, it is extremely improbable that even then it will be carried in the House of Commons, while in the House of Lords, from whose action in the case of Gen Dyer the Judge himself appears to have taken his cue, it is sure to be thrown out by a large majority. It cannot be forgotten that in both Houses, the Conservatives are still the largest single party, and so long as this condition of things lasts, there is not the ghost of a chance of so drastic a step as that proposed by Mr. Lansbury being carried out, for the simple reason that the Government and its supporters are not likely to attach that serious importance to the matter, by which alone they could hope to outvote the Conservatives in the Lower House and coerce them in the Upper.