THE BRITISH WITNESS .sx " TAKE the book in your right hand and repeat after me :sx I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth .sx " You lay the testament on the ledge of the witness-box in front of you .sx The prosecuting advocate rustles through his papers .sx Your mouth feels a little dry .sx Why this sudden feeling of guilt ?sx You have done nothing wrong .sx You are doing your duty as a citizen .sx And what is at stake ?sx This isn't a murder trial .sx If the motorist is found guilty , he will only suffer a fine .sx Surely no one can question your honest recollection .sx Or can they ?sx To the left and slightly above you , the magistrate watches you , reflectively .sx To your right and slightly below you , the defending advocate is watching you with a marked intensity .sx The prosecutor finds the page he wants and clears his throat .sx He , too , looks at you .sx The same question is in the minds of all of them .sx What sort of witness are you going to make ?sx They all know , or can guess , roughly what you are going to say .sx The question is :sx how are you going to say it ?sx But , surely , you have only to tell the truth .sx You have sworn to tell the truth .sx You are on your oath .sx Let us face one fact which every lawyer knows , though few will admit it .sx From the point of view of your honesty , that oath is almost irrelevant .sx If you have come to court to lie , you are going to lie whether or not you have sworn on the little black book .sx But the oath has one very useful purpose .sx If you decide to lie , and you are caught out , the fact that you have taken the oath enables the police to charge you with perjury .sx And then you will pay dearly for it .sx False evidence .sx This is unlikely , especially in a small case .sx When two honest witnesses give diametrically opposite accounts of the same event , how can anyone prove that the evidence you gave was deliberately false ?sx The liar is the person the advocate dreads least .sx He is the easiest to spot , the easiest to trap .sx One little slip , and you will have to start inventing lies on your feet , to cover up that slip .sx And that will involve you in another lie- and another- and another .sx If the advocate knows his job , you will suddenly wake up to find the fifth or sixth lie directly contradicts the first or second .sx And then you've had it .sx There are few instances of deliberate perjury- at least in minor cases .sx Looking back over more than two thousand cases , I don't think I ever came across more than a dozen liars- real liars , who gave a deliberately false account of certain facts .sx But among the thousands I have cross-examined , I have heard many patently wrong accounts of incidents given in all honesty .sx And in only a few instances have I been able to convince the witness in the box that his recollection must have been mistaken .sx The British witness is , with few exceptions , basically honest .sx And yet in almost every case witnesses conflict completely .sx How can this be ?sx Simply because everyone sees an incident from his own point of view .sx His true recollection of any set of facts will really consist of a series of isolated flashes of sight or sound .sx His imagination will then set to work to connect up those flashes .sx This process is inevitable .sx The human mind simply will not tolerate a series of unconnected incidents .sx It will arrange them to fit in with a person's experience , his ideas , his prejudices .sx When his mind has done this work , all in an instant of time , the result will be that person's absolutely honest recollection of the incident .sx And it may be totally different from what actually happened .sx Considering this , it is sometimes terrifying to realize the importance attached to the British witness .sx The fallibility of the honest recollection is fearful !sx Give me skidmarks , fingerprints , circumstantial evidence , every time !sx These things are all capable of explanation , of interpretation , but they cannot give the same kind of totally false picture that can be given in absolute honesty by a sincere and truthful witness .sx Put to the test .sx The responsibility of the advocate in court rests upon the importance of every witness's honest recollection being fully tested .sx When a man comes before a court charged with , say , driving dangerously , what it really means is that " in the opinion of a number of witnesses , whom you will see and hear , he was driving dangerously .sx " And all those who are called by the prosecution are already committed to the opinion that he was , while those called by the defence are already committed to the opposite opinion .sx If a witness can be persuaded by an advocate in cross-examination that his honest , preconceived opinion must have been wrong , then that witness's side of the case suffers a major blow .sx That is why the defending advocate is watching you at this moment with such intensity .sx He is trying to read your mind , to understand your prejudices , to assess your qualities of reason and of reasonableness .sx The first part of your appearance in the box is simple .sx The prosecuting advocate is on your side .sx He has your statement before him .sx He knows what you are going to say .sx He only has to make sure you say it all .sx Steel yourself .sx At the same time his object , if he is worth his salt , is to put you at your ease in the box .sx Then the prosecutor sits down and the defence advocate rises to cross-examine you .sx This is your moment of truth .sx You steel yourself , mentally .sx You are ready to anticipate every question as an attack on your honesty .sx But it is not .sx All that is likely to be questioned is your accuracy .sx The opening questions will very probably be polite , respectful , soothing .sx The advocate wants your co-operation .sx Time enough for him to attack , if he fails in this .sx He wants you to relax , to rethink the incident with him , calmly , logically- and from his client's standpoint .sx He will already have decided the point upon which he thinks you are most easily open to persuasion .sx He is not seeking information- that is the last thing he wants .sx He will never ask you a single question to which he is not pretty sure in advance of your answer .sx I recall a matrimonial case of some ten years ago when I did not follow this principle .sx I was appearing for the husband , an unhappy-looking wretch , battered and bruised after the physical attack which had come as the climax of years of bullying treatment from the huge , muscular female who now glared at me from the witness-box .sx The visual contrast was too much for me .sx " Madam , " I said , pointing out my cringing client , " are you telling the court that this poor little physical wreck attacked you in the way you have described ?sx " She snorted .sx " He wasn't a physical wreck until after he attacked me in the way I have described , " she said .sx And my case never recovered .sx It's Lawrence , Q.C.- this time for the PROSECUTION .sx BY GORDON THOMAS .sx What makes a shy- even colourless- little man a great criminal lawyer ?sx THE slightly built Queen's Counsel rustles his newly-laundered gown and settles his bobbed wig more firmly on his brow .sx And in the hushed , expectant courtroom , everyone leans forward to catch and savour his opening words .sx This will be the scene at Lewes Assizes as Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence , Q.C. , steps forward for the first time as Crown Counsel in a murder case .sx In the dock , on trial for their lives , will be three youths , accused of shooting down an unarmed guard in the Worthing Bank Raid .sx For a minute the gentle-looking barrister will peer owlishly around him , taking in the jury , the defendants and spectators .sx Then , in his soft , level voice , he will reveal once more the eloquent gift that has made him one of the ablest advocates in British legal history .sx It is a gift that will face its sternest test during the Worthing shooting case .sx For Lawrence is returning to the criminal bar after an absence of two years .sx Since 1958 , his position as vice-chairman of the Bar Council and his work in the High Court- and elsewhere- have kept him busy .sx But now he is returning to the most dramatic legal arena of all- the murder court .sx Controlled logic .sx Shy and retiring , Lawrence is often dismissed as " not really worth his reputation .sx " But a number of unhappy people have found this sneer to be untrue- usually they are driven off to prison .sx Not so long ago , Lawrence's name meant little to those who hadn't seen it beside the entrance to his chambers in the Temple .sx Then one day this little man- five feet five inches of controlled logic- rose to his feet to defend Dr. John Bodkin Adams , accused at the Old Bailey of poisoning one of his patients .sx It was one of the most sensational murder trials of the century .sx The defence had picked Lawrence , a " nobody " in criminal matters , because he was a barrister with a great knowledge of forensic medicine .sx For forty hours of relentless questioning , the gentle-voiced advocate picked expert holes in the prosecution's case .sx Finally , after a trial lasting seventeen days , he succeeded in getting the Eastbourne doctor acquitted .sx For Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence , it was a famous victory .sx In those seventeen days he had earned himself more fame than in twenty years at the Bar .sx Lawrence learned his craft as counsel in divorce and breach-of-promise cases .sx His grasp of statistics made him a " natural " for the arid work of Ministerial inquiries and Parliamentary committees .sx It also brought him in about +10,000 a year- a figure trebled since he " arrived .sx " Lawrence almost bloomed in the dusty atmosphere of the law-courts , avoiding histrionics , surviving with a stubborn , hard-working desire to get at the truth .sx Nothing obvious .sx The Adams case was typical .sx He put in four months of solid pre-trial work- long hours of study , stretching into the small hours .sx And the same kind of groundwork has gone into the Worthing case .sx But expect no obvious tricks from Lawrence at Lewes Assizes .sx He doesn't shout or thump law books as Marshall Hall did .sx He doesn't need a gold pencil , like Birkett , to mesmerize a witness .sx He lacks the pungent Irish humour of Edward Carson .sx Instead he has his own special tricks .sx He approaches a witness with his eyes blinking furiously .sx His modulated voice puts them at ease .sx The shy type he gently prods with :sx " Please , I am only trying to get at the truth .sx Try and help .sx " The reluctant he " persuades " with logic .sx And the arrogant , the liars , the " go-to-hell " brigade , soon find themselves in an uncomfortable hell of their own making .sx All eyes will watch him as he opens the prosecution in the Worthing case .sx Already his success has led the pundits at the Royal Courts of Justice to predict that he will become a judge and earn a knighthood .sx Every word and gesture he makes at Lewes Assizes will be weighed and noted .sx And in the Cock Tavern , across the road from the Royal Courts , barristers , solicitors and their clerks will be asking each other :sx Will this be Lawrence's trial ?sx But that is a question that only a jury can answer .sx Concluding THE RED SPY RING IN BRITAIN by E. H. Cookridge .sx Watch for a woman with a STRING BAG- and an ORANGE .sx . - that was Moscow's secret message to Alexander Foote ( above ) when he was a Russian spy in Switzerland .sx . THE organisation of a Soviet avantpost abroad- a network controlled by a resident director- is fundamentally the same in all countries , but the emphasis on its tasks and " targets " is naturally different .sx During the final stages of an agent's training , therefore , he is put into one of four groups .sx Group One consists of agents for political intelligence and subversion .sx