THE CHALLENGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 283, 14 November 1929, Page 7

THE CHALLENGE

ELSIE WALKER CASE

MR. WILFORD REPLIES. Z CAN HARDLY BELIEVE MB. COONEY IS SERIOUS. (Per Press Association.) Wellington, Nov. 14. “While I have not the police files in front of me, some of which are in Auckland, and amsequently cannot reply to the whole of Mr. Cooney’s statements, I feel that I should not wait in replying to the challenge,” says the Hon. T. M. Wilford in a statement to-day. “Mr. Cooney issues a challenge to me to prosecute Mrs. Thomason for alleged attempted blackmail under, of course, the proper section of the Crimes Act. I can hardly believe that Mr. Cooney is serious. The word ‘blackmail’ does not appear in the whole of my statement. X will requote from my statement the only passage upon which. X think. Mr, Cooney can rely for his ridiculous challenge. Here is the quotation i ‘By arrangement she (i.e., Mrs. Bayly) then went to Wanganui where, according to Mrs. Bayly, Mrs. Thomason asked from Mrs. Bayly a larfe sum of money. Although Mrs. Thomason denies to the polios making any demand for money it is significant that she names the exact sum of money mentioned by Mrs. Bayly, namely £lO,OOO, as being discussed between them. It is quite clear that at this interview the payment of money was discussed between ri.e women.’

“That must be the excerpt from the statement made by me upon which Mr. Cooney challenges me to prosecute Mrs. Thomason for blackmail. There is no other that he could possibly refer to. Mr. Cooney, dropping all discussion on the discrepancy between the statements of Mrs. Thomason and Mrs. Langdon, fastens on to the paragraph mentioned above and says, ‘I challenge the Minister of Justice to prosecute Mrs. Thomason for blackmail. Surely Mr. Cooney knows as a lawyer that there is no evidence which would justify such a proceeding. I can hardly believe that he is not aware of that. “In conclusion, I would like to ask Mr. Cooney, as Mrs. Thomason admitted mentioning the snm of £lO,OOO as being discussed between herself and Mrs. Bayly, what they were talking about.”

In closing a lengthy statement fat reply to Hon. T. M. Wilford’s pub» iislied remarks on the Elsie Walker mystery, Mr. H. O. Cooney, of T© Puke, solicitor for Mrs. challenged the Minister of Justice to prosecute Mrs. Thomason for blackmail.