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- LONDON, May 25 (AFP) - British judges and police who are freemasons
were criticised Tuesday for dragging their feet over a government drive
to urge masons in public life to come forward.
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- The initiative, considered to be one
of the most radical measures taken in the history of freemasonry, was aimed
at boosting public confidence in the legal and justice system which are
seen to be prime spheres of influence of the secretive fraternity.
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- A report by a cross-party parliamentary
committee published Tuesday was expected to note that public bodies had
been slow to set up voluntary registers of masons in public life.
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- The committee's original inquiry into
the society, which counts some 350,000 members in England and Wales, focused
on concerns that freemasons may have used their internal links to further
their careers or dodge disciplinary action.
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- But despite a threat by Home Secretary
Jack Straw to force out masons in public life by law, the report by the
Home Affairs Select Committee shows that members in the criminal justice
system are reluctant to come forward.
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- It charges that only three of the 43
regional police forces have drawn up the register. In the northern Derbyshire
region, only one officer of a force of 1,700 admitted to being a member
of the society.
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- Only half the 2,100 public prosecutors
surveyed about membership replied in any way and only nine in all admitted
they were freemasons.
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- There was slightly more success among
the judiciary, with almost all judges and magistrates responding to the
survey.
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- Of 5,000 judges, 1,208 said they were
freemasons while 263 magistrates of a total 25,000 owned up to membership
of the society, which is traditionally associated with the police force,
the legal profession, local government, medicine and the City of London,
Britain's financial district.
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- All new judicial appointees are now obliged
to state whether or not they were freemasons as a condition of their appointment.
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- The United Grand Lodge, the name of the
body representing the 8,000 lodges across England and Wales, said that
pressure to declare membership had led to an "unprecedented"
wave of resignations.
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- The fraternity, founded in 1717, has
insisted throughout its history on its moral and spiritual values. However,
its secretive nature has fuelled allegations that freemasons have had undue
influence in powerful public bodies.
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