APOLOGY TO MR CHURCHILL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25088, 21 January 1947, Page 7

APOLOGY TO MR CHURCHILL

STATEMENTS IN U.S. BOOK PUBLISHERS TO PAY DAMAGES LONDON, January 18. Harper Brothers, publishers, have agreed to pay Mr Churchill “substantial damages” and his costs in a libel action- for statements contained in Louis Adamic’s book, “Dinner at the White House.” This was stated in the King’s Bench Division by Mr G. O. Slade, K.C. (for Mr Churchill), when a suit by Mr Churchill came up for hearing. The words complained of were in a footnote in the book, he said. They were: “As Drew Pearson revealed in one of his columns in 1945, motives for British policy in Greece were at least partly linked to the fact that Hambro’s Bank, London the chief British creditors of Greece, had bailed Winston Churchill out of bankruptcy in 1912.” This was a gross libel upon a public man holding the high position Mr Churchill held, Mr Slade said. There was not a word of truth behind it. “Dinner at the White House” purported to be a description of a dinner party President Roosevelt gave at the White House at which Mr Churchill and Adamic, a Slovene but a naturalised American, were present. It was a Somewhat fanciful description of what took place. A few words only of casual conversation passed between Mr Churchill and Adamic. In addition to damages and costs, the publishers and Adamic had also agreed unreservedly to comply with other' requirements listed by Mr Churchill in the suit, said Mr Slade. They were to withdraw the imputations; to admit without qualification that they were unfounded; to apologise to Mr Churchill; and to excise the offending passage from all future sales. Mr Justice Hilbery directed that the record of the action be withdrawn. Mr Churchill was not in Court.