DISLOYAL UTTERANCE BY A SWISS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 21, 24 July 1918, Page 11

DISLOYAL UTTERANCE BY A SWISS

FINE IMPOSED,

(II TBLEaRAPH.-PP.E93 ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, 22nd; July.

At the Police Court to-day, Adolf Gotlieb Fischer was charged with publishing an utterance indicating disloyalty,. as follows :—"The British are liars. They lied in South Africa. The British will never win the war. Germany will never j go down. She will win. I say that the British would do worse things than the Germans, and have done so, but it will never be known until after the war. They are getting what they deserve." Evidence was given to the effect that statements and letters similar in tenor were made in a boardinghouse. Accused said he was a Swiss, and had been in the Dominion for forty years. He had eight children, and had always been loyal to Britain. Two of bis sons were at the front. He denied making the statements. Pie had lived in Germany from ten years of age until lie was fifteen. His wife, who. had deserted j him, was a German. j

Accused was fined £25,. the Magistrate (Mr. Hunt) remarking that the case was.not so bad as if the utterance had been made in a public place, such as an< hotel. ■■; ,