No Crime

Vera, Countess Cathcart, wearing a green felt hat, faced a judge of the U. S. District Court last week in Manhattan. She was appealing for a writ of habeas corpus to release her from the clutches of U. S. immigration officials.

She had admitted to the officials (TIME, March 1) that she had eloped to South Africa in 1921 with the Earl of Craven while her husband, Earl Cathcart, was suing her for divorce. The immigration officials then had explained their position:

"You have admitted the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude, namely, adultery. The law states that persons who admit the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude shall not be admitted to the United States.

Last week the Federal Judge granted her a writ of habeas corpus, releasing her from the grip of the immigration service and allowing her to go undisturbed about business or pleasure in the U. S. The fact which induced him to release her was simply that adultery is not a crime in South Africa.

The Judge's opinion:

"On the record which I have before me, I find nothing but the evidence that this woman has committed an act in a foreign country.

"The record shows that she committed an act which many of us doubtless think involves moral turpitude, but an act is not a crime always and there is no presumption that this act was a crime. The Congress did not contemplate that the act, if a crime in this country, would be ground for exclusion. If that were so, every man who sold or manufactured liquor in other lands would be barred from the United States, for our courts have held that violation of our prohibition laws involves moral turpitude.

"I think it is well settled that the act, to become ground for exclusion, must be a crime under the law of the place where it was committed. This record shows nothing to indicate that. There is no presumption that the act was a crime, and the affidavit that adultery is not a crime in South Africa settles the issue definitely."