Autograph Letter Signed from campaigner for homosexual rights Peter Wildeblood to Labour politician Lord Chorley, thanking him for his reference in a parliamentary debate to his book 'Against the Law', and efforts for 'a section of the community'.

1p., 12mo. Very good. Wildeblood writes: 'I would like to thank you for your appreciative reference to my book in Tuesday's debate, and to say how much I admire your efforts to obtain a measure of justice for a section of the community that is necessarily inarticulate. I am proud to be associated with your activities and wish them every possible success.' Rather than homosexuals, the 'section of the community' referred to by Wildeblood was the 'prison population'. Hansard reports that in the House of Lords debate on 'Prisons and after-care' on 31 July 1956 Chorley stated: 'I was glad indeed that the noble Lord, Lord Glyn, who speaks with a good deal of personal knowledge of these things, was able to confirm the terrible account which was given in the Wildeblood book, referred to more than once this afternoon, and which, I am sure, has shocked everybody who has read it. Everybody with whom I have discussed this book has referred to the horrible conditions which this sensitive man had to put up with while he was in prison, and I am glad that that view has been endorsed this afternoon.' From the Chorley papers.