EDITOR FINED £75.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20027, 8 September 1930, Page 18

EDITOR FINED £75.

LIBEL ON EX-KAISER. . (rNITZB ■ PRESS ASSOCIATION—BI EXECXBIO ■tSUEGRJIPHrrCOPSaiGHT,.). BERLINj SeptembcT'-S. la the ea.Se in which th,o ex' Kaiser sued for lityel. Edward . Mendal, editor .of the Ullenstein newspaper /'.Morgeri* post;" defendant -was fined-£7s* in default three months * imprisonment, the Court deciding tha tit was a-'wUste of time for the defendant to call'liis witnesses. Tlie Court .held that, while the ex-Kaiser had admittedly acted harmfully in many respects, there, was .no proof? in the present case th&t he. had acted against Germany 's interests. His demand for imprisonment without the option of a line was rejected, because .Mendal had acted in good faith. There waa a dramatic incident- wheu Hcrr. Manroth, solicitor for the defence, declared that Herr Bloch, the cx-Kai-ser's solicitor, did not possess power of attorney under the Eopublican law, which abolished the title Kaiser,. re- - cognising Wilhelm only as- Exinco of; Prussia. -. -- • The Court President was unable to' get the parties to compromise on the document, which road, '' His Imperial and Boyal Majesty, former r&igning German Emperor, King of Prussia, Wilhelm IL, without occupation, living, at tlu House of Doom," and was signed "Wilhelm Imperatar Bex." . The Court decided that the power of; attorney was legally in order, the signatory .being identical withPrijice ,WU-. helm of Prussia. Counsel for the defence-declared that f . half of Wilhelm's wealth comprised Krupp's debentures inherited from hi& "grandfather, and his financial interestinfluenced him not to allow- Krupp's to manufacture a new gun superior, to the French arm, thus acting prejudicially to German national interests. [Last November the ex-Kaiser in- i structed Hefr Bloch, a prominent lawyer, to institute, proceedings for criminal libel against the editor of tho "Morgenpost" for reviving the old story that the Kaiser enriched himself by investing much of his private fortune, before the war, in the KruppStumm undertakings, whioh, through his influence, were granted a virtual, monopoly of the supply of heavy, artillery; regardless.. of cost. This wias the first time Wilhelm had set the law in motion against attabks sinco 'he r took refuge in Holland.] -