The Winslow Boy Page #9

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for the honourable to characterise the

conduct of my department as inhumane...

and allowed them to deliver

malice towards the boy Winslow.

Such unfounded accusations I

can well choose to ignore.

- What about the Petition of Right? - He should

have the same opportunity as anyone else.

This criticism against the Admiralty...

appears to stem from a purely legal

question of Petition of Rights...

brought by Mr. Arthur Winslow...

and the Admiralty's demur thereto.

There is no doubt whatever in my mind ..

That in certain cases...

advice may have to be

sacrificed for the public good.

And moreover...

His Majesty's government cannot be and

will not be expected to yield to threats...

or eloquent gestures

from any source whatsoever!

Morton, why on earth didn't you speak?

My dear Hamilton, the House is

in no mood to listen to reason.

But aren't you going to speak at all?

Are you all right, Father?

Yes, why?

So much for right and wrong.

So much for Sir Robert Morton.

Well my dear, I did rather

stay down, didn't I?

Yes father, that's not the point.

The point is, he didn't make a speech.

He got out of it in a most

magnificently dramatic way.

I admired the theatrics. If I hadn't known I

could have sworn he was really indignant.

Of course he was genuinely indignant.

So would any man of feeling be.

Sir Robert, father dear,

is not a man of feeling.

I don't think any emotion at

all can stir that fishy heart.

Except perhaps a single-minded

love of justice.

A single-minded love of Sir Robert Morton.

- Well, what's happening?

- Admiral Westmacott's still on his feet...

still saying precisely nothing.

So the debate continues.

- Why, Sir Robert!

- Yes?

I've never seen you smoke before.

Oh, yes. I do sometimes.

On very special occasions.

Here's the latest one.

- Anything in it?

- No.

The debate continues.

That will be John.

My dad just told me about his letter.

I'm awfully sorry.

- I hope you don't think...

- Look, darling, it's perfectly all right.

- I know you had nothing to do with it. - I must

say, it was pretty high-handed of the old man.

- High-handed?

- I told him so, too.

- We had quite a row about it.

- Darling.

The awful thing is he practically said it.

If your father decides to

go on with the case...

he'll do everything he threatens.

But, aren't they rather

empty threats, John?

Well, you see, darling...

there's always the allowance.

Yes. I see...

there's always the allowance.

What's your father going to do?

Throw up the case.

Oh my darling. I am so glad.

I knew nothing so trivial and stupid

could possibly come between us.

With the barricades going up this

week in Dublin this very minute...

the whole country trembling under

the threat of civil war...

you waste the whole day, on what?

Morton's up.

- Who's up?

- Morton.

I must hear this.

What has this puny little affair

of a 14-year-old schoolboy...

and the alleged theft of the

paltry sum of 5 shillings...

What has this to do with such grave

matters as our rights and liberties?

What indeed! What has that to do

with our rights and liberties?

Only this!

Once allowed through indifference, one

act of injustice,...

... and by degrees, the slow poison of indifference,

by being convenient...

may cripple and destroy

those rights and liberties.

- Yes.

- Yes.

It matters not whether the Winslow case

is about a 14 year old schoolboy...

or the oldest pensioner

in the kingdom...

or the most distinguished of the

right honourable gentlemen opposite.

Which of the distinguished

gentleman opposite?

It matters not if the sum involved

is 5 shillings, 5 pence...

or the fiftieth part of the

smallest fraction of a farthing.

It matters not one single jot. For the

case of the Winslow Boy is none of these.

- What is it?

- Yes!

It is not Winslow's guilt or Winslow's

innocence that concerns us now.

It is something greater by far, for the

case of the Winslow Boy is none of these.

It is Winslow's right as a common

citizen of England, to be heard.

To be heard in defence of his honour...

so wantonly pitched into the mire...

because of this monstrous assumption

by His Majesty's government.

This medieval and

monstrous assumption...

that the King can do wrong.

And to maintain the common rights

of Winslow against the King...

I will fight to the last

breath in my body...

and the last drop of my blood.

And I believe, with all my heart, that

this house will accept my view...

that there is only one course

left open to the government.

Namely this...

let them not rest...

until the Attorney General has

endorsed Mr. Winslow's petition...

with the time-honoured phrase...

the phrase that has always

stirred an Englishman...

the manner, always will be that...

wherever he may be...

in his castle...

in his backyard...

or in the humblest little public house

at the corner of the humblest street...

"Let right be done."

Well said, Robert Morton!

The Admiralty administration cannot go

back on a decision it has already taken.

I have nothing more to say.

Damn disgrace about English justice!

That's not an answer!

That's not an answer!

Let right be done? Impossible.

Are you sure - absolutely sure - that you've

considered every aspect of the situation?

I have.

This is grave news. Grave news, indeed. Sir

Robert must have been bitterly disappointed.

After all, he has put his whole

heart and soul into the case.

My dear Desmond,

Sir Robert has no heart and no soul.

The man is a fish. A hard, cold

blooded, sneering, supercilious fish.

Sir Robert Morton.

- Something gone down the wrong way?

- Yes.

- May I assist?

- Thank you.

Good evening, sir. I thought I would call and

give you an account of the day's proceedings.

- May we offer you some refreshment, Sir

Robert? A whiskey and soda? - No thank you.

We admired your exit.

It was magnificent.

Very good of you to say so.

It's a very old trick, you know.

I've done it many times in the courts.

It's nearly always surprisingly effective.

I don't think you've met my

fiance, John Watherstone.

Sir Robert Morton.

- No I haven't. How do you do, sir?

- Congratulations delayed.

May I offer you my very

belated congratulations.

How delicious. May I help myself?

Thank you.

There has been a most surprising

development in the House, sir.

A certain barrister who happened

to be interested in the case...

suddenly got up on his feet

at about ten past nine...

and delivered one of the most scathing denunciations

of a government department ever heard in the House.

His style was quite superb.

What a pity you missed it.

- And the debate?

- The debate, of course, revived...

and the First Lord suddenly found himself

under attack from all parts of the House.

Rather than risk a division...

he has given an undertaking that he will instruct the

Attorney General to endorse our Petition of Right.

The case of Winslow against the King,

therefore, can now come to court.

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