SUMMONSES SERVED ON DR GREER

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 1

SUMMONSES SERVED ON DR GREER

(New Zealand Preu Atsociaiion)

AUCKLAND, March 8. Dr Germaine Greer has been served with summonses to appear in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on two charges of using indecent language and one of using obscene language.

She will return to Auckland from Wellington to appear on all three charges on Fridaymorning.

The initial summons served on Dr Greer this morning alleges she used an eight-letter word in the Town Hall, "which was open to, and being used by the public, as of right." The police action, taken under the Police Offences Act, 1948, comes after a number of complaints resulting from her appearance in the packed Town Hall on Monday. Minutes before she was due to fly to Wellington this afternoon, Dr Greer was served another two summonses at Auckland Airport They alleged indecent and obscene use of language during her address to a large crowd at Auckland University yesterday afternoon. The announcement of the initial summons was made to an audience of more than 500 men and women who attended a luncheon to mark International Women’s Day today.

“I’ve forced the law into a comer, I suppose,” Dr Greer told her audience. And with that she invited a chorus of the offending word from her four colleagues on the panel, and the cry was taken up around the hall.

Panel members accompanying Dr Greer were, Miss K. Turner, Miss S. Kedgley, Miss A. Gilbert and Miss S. Cederman. Speaking this afternoon, soon after receiving the summons, Dr Greer said: “I am quite happy to oppose this on behalf of the people of New

Zealand . . . and as a representative of ecology. "This is going to make New Zealand, the laughing stock of the world.”