ALLEGATION OF LIBEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21164, 22 April 1932, Page 12

ALLEGATION OF LIBEL.

TWO MEN PROSECUTED, CHARGE OF PUBLISHING. HEARING ADJOURNED. A sequel to a demonstration of unemployed in the grounds of Parliament House Wellington, on September 16 last, was heard in tho Police Court yesterday, when proceedings were taken against George Budd, aged 35, seaman, and Ernest Frederick Thompson, agent, in connection with alleged defamatory libel of a police inspector. Budd and Thompson, who appeared on summons, were jointly charged with publishing to Detectives T. A. Sneddon and T. W. Allsopp a defamatory libel of, and concerning John Lander, an inspector of police, in a certain newspaper called War, as followslnspector Lander, commanding tho force which batoned tho workers on the steps of Parliament House, lied and perjured himself when he stated, during the Court proceedings, that he was not armed. He lied, as his masters, the capitalist class, lie in their propaganda war against the. workers. Call for the resignation of Inspector Lander, perjuring liar and attacker of defenceless men, women and children." The alleged offence is stated by tho police to have been committed on October 4, 1931, the paragraph complained of being published in leaflets, which, it is alleged, were mimeographed by Budd and distributed to tho public by Thompson at a meeting of unemployed and others held in an Auckland theatre. The magistrate, Mr. F. K. Hunt: It is an indictable charge, and yet these men are appearing on summons ? / Counsel for the Crown: 'I hat, is so. On tho application of tho Crown the hearing was adjourned until May 12.