THE FIRST COMMUNIQUE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 12 December 1923, Page 5

THE FIRST COMMUNIQUE

LORD ALFRED DOUGLAS IN

COURT

MR. CHURCHILL ALLEGES LIBEL.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATIOH.-.COPTRIGHT.) (REDTER-S TJLEGKiIf.) (Received 12th December, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 11th December. The trial of Lord Alfred Douglas, on a charge of libelling Mr. Winston Churchill, has opened. The Old Bailey was crowded. Lord Afred Douglas pleaded not guilty, and also that his statements were true and justified, and for the public benefit, because Mr. Churchill,, owih" to his misconduct and incompetence, Ihould be prevented from holding further high office of State.

The Attorney-General, prosecuting, said that the alleged libel alleged that Sir Ernest Cassel's syndicate, as the result of a plot with Ml: Churchill to publish a false report of the "Battle of Jutland, made 18 millions on British stocks and 36 millions on German stocks, and that Mr. Churchill was given a present worth £40,000. The Attorneys General claimed that every statement of the libel alleged was false. The communique about the battle was not issued by Mr. Churchill but by Mr. Balfour, and Mr. Churchill wae not aware of it. The communique drawn up by Mr. Balfour wa.s based oh a telegram from. Admiral Jellicoe. The only document which Mr. Churchill wrote connected with the Battle of Jutland was an appreciation of the British part in the battle, which Mr. Balfour and other members of the Admiralty asked him to write in order to counteract the German claims cf victory published in the neutral Press.- Sir Ern^ est Cass'el did not deal in German stocks during the war—only in th 6 British war ban. Mr, Churchill made several thousands as war correspondent and lecturer in South Africa, and as biographer of his father, and placed the ma'nagfenient of his" investments in the hands of Sir Ernest Cass'ek. who was a friend, of his father. Sir Ernest Casse'l gave Mr. Churchill ■ the furniture for a- room in 1905 and a wedding present of £500 in 1908, eight years before the Battle of Jutland.

Lord Balfour and Mr. Churchill trave evidence bearing out the Attorney-Gen efal's statement. > . .

- Lord Alfred Douglas was committed for trial at Bow Street last month on ;i charge of criminally libelling Mr Winston Churchill in a pamphlet entitled "The Murder oi Kitchener and Ihe Truth About tho Battle of Jutland and the Jews." It was alleged in the pamphlet that Sir Ernest Cassel gave Mr. Churchill a large sum for issuing a false report of this Battle of Jutland, thereby assisting to bring off a financial coup. In July, Lord Alfred Douglas' sued the "Morning Post" for alleged libel, contained in a, letter from the editor of the "Jewish Guardian," which, the "Morning Post" published. The offending paragraph stated: "It must no longer be a paying proposition to men Hire Mr. Croslaud and.Lord Alfred Douglas to invent vile insults against the Jews." Douglas, giving evidence, isaid the attitude he had adopted towards the Jews had injured his newspaper- very much, because advertisers boycotted it; He knew he might be prosecuted for the Jutland article, but he risked that, knowing that he was trying-lo do a bit of good. Under cross-examination, he expressed the opinoir that Jews murdered Lord Kitchener to prevent him going to Russia, because, if he had stopped the revolution, the war would have ended two years earlier. The jury returned a verdict of one farthih!? damages. The Judge Eaid he entirely shared the jury's opinion.