Churchill vs. Douglas

During the past week all England was interested in the libel charge brought by Mr. Winston Churchill against Lord Alfred Douglas, second son of the eighth Marquis of Queensberry, for publishing in a paper called Plain English libelous statements. The defendant alleged that Mr. Churchill had plotted with the late Sir Ernest Cassel to publish a false report of the Battle of Jutland, with the object of creating a panic on the neutral stock exchanges in order to sell German stocks at a high price and buy British stocks at a depreciated value.

Mr. Churchill. Cross-examined on the second day of the trial, which lasted four days, Mr. Churchill answered the following questions:

Mr. Hayes, council for the defense, called his attention to a recent editorial in The Morning Post, in which it was declared: " 'He is mentally incapable of realizing the truth or anything like it.' Did the witness intend to prosecute the Post for libel?"

"There is always a lot of abuse flung about at election time. I shall have to consult my lawyer about it."

Referring to the murder of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at Sarejevo, council said: "We do not know the cause of that murder."

"I may tell you I had nothing to do with it." (Laughter.)

Passing to Mr. Churchill's recent book, The World Crisis,* Mr. Hayes asked: "Now about your egotism; have you counted the number of I's in those two volumes? In 15 lines there are 13 and in 10 lines 10."

"I will try to cut them down in the next edition."

Lord Alfred Douglas. Lord Alfred's evidence dealt principally with his career as an editor. It was brought out, however, that he was an undischarged bankrupt. On being asked to leave the witness box, he burst forth: "I consider that I have been treated in a most grossly unfair way. I have not been allowed to put my case at all. I have not been able to tell why I wrote the articles and where I got the information from. It is the most abominable piece of unfairness I have ever seen in my life."

Mr. Justice Avery: "Will you leave the box? And don't make speeches to me!"

Mr. Justice Avery. In summing up, the Judge said that there was no doubt about the statements being libelous, and the only question was: Were they true? "Lord Alfred complains that his learned counsel has been hindered in putting his case before the Court. I am bound to say that in the course of my long experience I do not believe that any counsel in any court has ever been allowed greater latitude than has been allowed in this case. Mr. Hayes indulged in a mixture of the diatribe of politicians and vituperative abuse of Mr. Winston Churchill.

"Mr. Churchill has been criticized for not bringing these proceedings before. Most politicians are libeled; many Cabinet Ministers are libeled; and if they took action for the libel every time they were libeled they would be spending most of their time in the witness box instead of attending to their duties. Why, even judges are not immune from this kind of thing."

The Sentence. The jury, which was out for seven minutes, held that Lord Alfred Douglas had criminally libeled Mr. Winston Churchill. Mr. Justice Avery sentenced the new prisoner to six months in jail and permanently bound him over in the sum of -L-100 for good behavior, failing which he can be again imprisoned for a term of six months.

The case had ended. Lord Alfred waved a cheery farewell to his friends in Court as he marched off to his cell. Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill were inundated with congratulations.

* The World Crisis. Volume I was reviewed in TIME, April 14; Volume II, Nov. 19.