PEER GOES TO GAOL

Grey River Argus, 1 August 1931, Page 5

PEER GOES TO GAOL

I I KYLSANT CONVICTED Londoners Surprised NEED TO PROTECT INVESTORS FALSE PROSPECTUS. 1 (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, July 9. Sir J. S.mon, addressing the jury in the Kylsant case, said that if civil proceedings followed t.he trial, Lord Kylsant’» co-directors might be made [defendants with Lord Kylsaint. therefore. consulting their own proper interests they mjight de4 're to be proice ted at the present trial. Referring to t'he prospectus charge, Ihe said that he could not imagine i greater proof of Lord Kylsant’s honesty than the fact that ho 1 subscribed his own money for the stock. Sir P. Hastings stressed that the ( Wads of Morland’s profession had < sworn Hie had done nothing wrong. Sir W. Jow/‘tt said that the prospectus was dishonest and false, intended to deceive investors, and did deceive them. The Judge sums up to-moiTOW. The “Daily Express” states that (the trustees of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company aro willing to consider satisfactory offers for the ff’s--1 posal of the fleets. The sale of any of these group s would mean the breaking lup of tlh-e greatest shipping combine in the world. LONDON, July 30. Lord Kylsant, the shipping magnate, was found guilty of the false prospectus charge, and was sentenced o a year’s imprisonment in the second division. He was found not guilty on the first two counts. The accountant Morland was acquitted. LONDON, July 30. Th<o verdict in Lord Kylsant’s case has caused ai sensation in London.. Not j one in ton businessmen expected, a conviction, though the tone of the Judge’s summing was unexpectedly severe. Much sympathy is expressed for Lord Kylsant, the city men remember that he commenced Ife as a humble clPrl: at Newcastle When Lord Kylsant purchased the' Austial’ian-CommonweaJth Line, he had the greatest shipowning combination in the world, and he was Chairman of no fewer than thirty-twn eotn-

Lord Kylsant was obvious-fly shaken by Ihe verdict aHid the sentence The Judge’s voice was so low that it was scarcely audfble. The previous convections of Peers include those of Earl Ferrer s in 1760. Lord Byron in 1765, Earl Russell in J 901 and Lord Torrington in 1928Morland,, the accountant, was the recipient of many congratulations, and he was cheered in the streets. Lady Kylsant and fafer daughters waited for the verdTct all day long. One of the daughters of Lord Kylsand is married to Earl Coventry, and the. other to Lord Sheffield. Later there was a pathetic meeting between Lord Kylsant nnd Lady Kylsant at Old Bailey, the latter leaving the Court in teatr.% The warders took Lord Kylsant in a taxi and drove him to Wormwood Scrubs, where his sentence v.’’ n p ohib 1 " be served, if hs appeal docs not succeed.

The comment on the Kylsant case is necessarily restricted, in view of Iho appeal, but, mainly, it stresses the importance of the issues to the business world, the necessity of safeguarding the -ntorcsts of investors of clarifying the balance sheets and of strengthening tftiio authority of auditors. FLEET NOT FOR SALE. LONDON, July 30. It is officially stated that there is no tru*h in the report that the R.M.S.P. Trustees are willing to dispose of the fleet.