LIBEL ON KING GEORGE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8329, 15 January 1913, Page 7

LIBEL ON KING GEORGE

THE CASE OF MYLIUS. EDITOR OF “LIBERATOR” 'INTERVIEWED. NEW YORK, January 13. Mr James, editor of the “Liberator,” interviewed, said ho was not an Anarchist, but a Republican. He had sent E. F. Mylius to the United States as ho (Mylius) had been unable to obtain employment in England. It was absurd to convict Mylius of a criminal libel, as the King was above tho law. They might have convicted him of treason or sedition. Tho newspapers indicate that Mr Nagel, secretary for Commerce, will reopen the whole case, this practically amounting to a retrial. On February 3rd, 1911, Edward P. Mylius was convicted before tho Lord Chief Justice of having published a criminal libel concerning the King, and was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. The libel, which appeared in a Republican leaflet called “The Liberator," printed in Paris, was to tho effect that in 1890, when at tho Island of Malta, his Majesty, then Prince George of Wales, had entered into wedlock with a daughter of Admiral Sir Michael Cnlme-Sey mour, and that ho had afterwards abandoned her in order to marry tho present Queen. An application that the King should be called as a witness on prisoner’s behalf was refused, but after sentence had been passed the AttorneyGeneral read a denial of the allegations from a document given under his Majesty’s hand. On December 24th Mylius was ordered to be deported from the United States as an undesirable alien, on hie arrival at Ellis Island. His conviction was tho sole ground of the United States’ objection to his landing. A Now York' message, published on the 9th inst., stated: E. F. Mylius, who was last year convicted of libelling King George, hag appealed to Mr Nagel, Secretary for Commerce, against the order deporting him from America. Mr Nagel has decided to hear Mr James, editor of the “Liberator," who is about to arrive by the steamer La Provence, before coming to a final decision regardLog the deportation of Mylius.