WHISPERING GALLERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19549, 31 January 1927, Page 9

WHISPERING GALLERY.

FRAUD CHARGE FAILS. • ALLEGED MEMOIRS CASE, (Received Jan. 29, 5.E p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Jan. 29. The trial was concluded to-d.iy 0? Hesketh Pearson, 39, described as a writer, 011 a charge of obtaining by false pretences with intent to defraud, from Mr. Allen L. W. Lane, a banker's cheque for the payment of £225. The jury found that accused made a false representation without intent to defraud. The chairman of the Bench, in his summing up said the "Whispering Gallery," the book concerned in the case, was like a great many reminiscences that were published to-day. Some were chiefly distinguished by their vulgarity, others by their lack of veracity. But the jury had not to decide that, nor whether the 4000 purchasers of the book Lad been defrauded. The real questions were, whether Pearson falsely represented his manuscript as Sir Rennell Rodd's diary, and whether Lanes relied upon this in undertaking its publication. The defence admitted that Pearson was a romancer who haci lied continually, buf said he was not necessarily a defrauder. It was claimed that he simply believed he had produced something which would appeal to modern taste and which would bring profit to himself and greater profit to Lanes.