LIBEL ACTION

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1940, Page 5

LIBEL ACTION

AGAINST “DAILY WORKER.”

(United Press Association —By Electrlo Telegraph—Copy nght).

LONDON, April 29

A big Labour libel action, arising out ol the war, opened in the Law jourts, when Sir AValfer Citrine and six members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress sued E. R. Pountnoy. proprietor of the “Daily Worker,” for damages.

Sir William Jowett, for plaintiffs, said that the alleged libel referred to rlaintiffs’ visit to France in December, to initiate the Anglo-French Trade Union Council. The “'Daily Worker was the official organ of the British Communist Party, which was affiliated to the Communist International at Aloseow. Sir AV. Jowett read articles from the “Daily Worker,” containing passages stating that the real purport ol tin* Paris meeting is to bring 1,009,000 trade unionists behind the war machine of British and French Imperialism, and that “martial law in factories, a 60-hour week, compulsory deductions from -wages, and the abolition of shop stewards are some of the benefits British and French unity may bring from across the Channel.”

Sir Walter Citrine, in evidence, said that the statements in the “Daily Worker” were misleading and untrue. The Labour movement had rocatedly declared that money for the publication of the “Daily Worker ’ came from Moscow.