MILITARY LIBEL CASE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16479, 19 February 1914, Page 7

MILITARY LIBEL CASE.

GENERAL FRENCH'S OPINION

PLAINTIFF HAD NOT CAVALRY LEADER'S QUALITIES.

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.

LONDON, February 17.

In giving evidence in the military libel case, tho defendant, Colonel Sir Edward SVard, ex-Permanent UnderSecretary of State, said that it was his duty to circulate to the newspapers whatever the Army Council desired. General French, in his evidence, said that he did not consider that Major Adam, the plaintiff, possessed a cavalry leader'6 essential qualities. (In August, 1910, General Scobell,; who was alleged by Major Adam, in the House of Commons, to have made deliberate misstatements in a report concerning a military trouble that occurred in 1907, was exonerated by a Board of Inquiry, set up by the Army Council. The report had reference to the dismissal of five officers of the Fifth Lancers, including Major Adam, on the ground that tney were inefficient. Major Adam is how suing Colonel Sir Edward Ward, for an alleged libel (Contained in the fetter wrfittren in 1910 on behalf of the Army Council to General Scobell, and communicated to the Press, upholding General Scobell's confidential reports. Defendant denied publication, and also pleaded privilege.) •