GOSSIPING WOMEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23097, 23 July 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOSSIPING WOMEN

WARNING FROM JUDGE PRISON FOR NEXT OFFENCE SCANDAL ABOUT HONEST MEN rpilE Recorder of London, Mr. Gerald Dodson, who at the Old Bailey bound over two women to be of good behaviour for two years, strongly condemned them for talking scandal. Accused of publishing a defamatory libel on two Post Office workers were Mrs. Nora Parker, thirty-four, and Mrs. Gladys Lawrence, forty, both of Ruislip, Middlesex.

The case was said to have arisen because of gossip over garden walls. Months of Inquiry

The Recorder said: "It may well be that you thought that you were being evilly spoken of. The law provides a remedy for that, but both of you, with an intensity of hatred which is sometimes found among women, then set about to attack the characters of two men who were earning their living honestly and supporting their families. "It is disgraceful to think that two women should stoop to do a thing like this. It is not as though you had not good homes and good husbands. It is not as though you did not know better. "You both knew perfectly well the enormity of the act of which you have been guilty. It has caused a great deal of trouble—hours, days, perhaps months, of inquiry about these two perfect! v honest men. You did not hesitate to attack to satisfy your own desire for revenge. "You may now appreciate what vou have done, and I hope that this slinging of Middlesex mud will cease. If it does not you will go to prison and others with you. Anonymous Letter "I imagine it will be all the better for Ruislip if people who are minded to do this sort of thing receive a term of imprisonment. It might have a cleansing effect on their minds." The Recorder added that it was a "sillv and almost pathetic story" to which he had to listen. "One hopes," he concluded, .".that in time some measure of civilisation will come to Ruislip. While there are women like vou in it. progress will be hindered." Mr. John Maude said the women concocted an anonymous letter, accusing the two Post Office workers of theit, and sent it to the Postmaster-General. Many inquiries were made into the activities of two perfectly innocent men, against whom not one word could be said.