BOTTOMLEY'S BOTTOMLESS BOTHER

NZ Truth, Issue 847, 18 February 1922, Page 7

BOTTOMLEY'S BOTTOMLESS BOTHER

Libel Action Lapses

Prosecution Perfunctorily Permits

pieadmgs to Pass

London cablegrams relate that the celebrated Bottomley-Bigland libel action has collapsed, Horatio having left the bridge on the Judge disallowing an application for an adjournment m order to secure the attendance of certain witnesses. No evidence being offered, the Judge discharged Bigland and granted him the costs of the action. There is/ still. a case pending at the Shropshire Assizes, where Bigland is accused of inciting people to extort money from Bottomley during the Wrekin election. Mi*. Bottomley states tliat aifter the.'. .Shi'opsh're case there will probably be further "proceedings m which, ho will conduct his- own case. Apropos this w:hole .unsavory business, our bright' little namesake, "London Truth," has the following comments to make;

Mr. Horatio .' Bottomley is very unhappy. Well he may be. Ever since. the beginning of this year he has been pursued by , subscribers to his abortive Bond fclubs, who want either their money back, according to promise, or the bonds, worth only £9, which they have agreed to take at £15 m lieu of cash. They haye refused to see why he should have any difficulty either m paying them the cash which he has received from them for investment or the bonds which he has sold to them. They 'have complained 'to "Truth" Iby •thousands, and' "Truth" has so little respect foi* chairmen of Parliamentary groups, as to -publish their complaints and advise the . complainants what to do. Then these uhi'easpnable persons bombarded Mr. Bottomley with county court summonses, until the thing'became such a nuisance that he tried to stop it by issuing about a dozen writs for libel against "Truth." This malicious and obstinate jom*nal' refused to shut .up, so the unfortunate victim tried to stop the newspaper trade from selling, it. 7, The newspaper trade were equally unsympathetic. Then ' one malignant creditor took Mr. Bottomley into Chancery, where a Judge -not only appointed receivers of the funds, of the Bond . Clubs, but so far forgot himself as to condemn Mr. Bottomley's conduct m the strongest terms. Then another of His Majesty's judges held that Mr. Bottomley was personally liable to repay one of the subscribers . a few hundred pounds she. had entrusted to him for. lnvestment. Finally,, a magistrate at Bow-street has deblared his 'inability- .to believe. what Mr. Bottomley told him on his oath.- All this shows what justice is coming to m this country! It is enough, as Mr. Stiggins observed, . to "make a vessel's heart bleed." ■ ' \

: The vessel's heart m this case bleeds publicly-. We ar,e • all- invited at the newspaper advertising stations to read "The Torture bf Public Life," by Horatio Bottomley, and we find such subheads .as "The Sin of Malice—Blander as a Political Weapon — A Plea for Fair Play.'' Few who have read, about the Torture can have remained unmoved — scarcely even our hard-hearted judges and magistrates. The readers' tears "must. have mingled .with the writer's, especially when they came to the concluding words: "The chaplet of fame js too often a crown of thorns." But there is no nobler spectacle than a brave man struggling with adversity. Though -his voice chokes, and his tears water the ink, this martyr to the Torture, of Public; Life can still find comfort m the thought that his only ambition has been "to be the champion of the bottom dog and the trusted guide of the common folk." Thus fortified by a good conscience, he is able to console' himself with the conviction that "clouds . ? wilt'- be sunshine . t'o-morrowi" From the contemplation of his own sufferings, hej turns to "The Torture 6.f Public Life," as endured by other eminent men — Mr. A. J. Balfour, the Prince of Wales, Presidents of Republics who have been assassinated m the New and the Old World— even- "the Anointed ( Head of. the Holy Russian Empire." There they are, with the President of the Bond Clubs, all m the same boat ; together*. It is true that the other brethren m misfortune did not start Bond .Clubs. They have not, so far as I can remember,- been m difficulties with a horde of rapacious individuals who want-money that is owing to them- They have • not been publicly "dressed down" by judges or magistrates. But historical parallels are, after all, only figures of speech, not Euclidean straight lines.

AMONG THE COMMON FOLK.

Far "fee it from me to add to the anguish which Mr. Bottomley is suffering. But he bears himself so stoutly that I cannot' think a little more torture will trouble him seriously, and when he refers to his Championship of the bottom dog and his trusted guidance of the common .folk, I think the public ought , to know that even bottom dogs and [common folk are among the persecutors. Sad Is it to find how little gratitude they have towards their benefactor! I have had a few bf them looked j'up, but I find a little" difficulty m making a selection because I do ndt understand precisely at what point m the so r cial scale we get down to the bottom dogs' whose welfare Air. Bottorhley had so much at heart. A letter received lost week illustrates this difficulty., In July, 1919, the writer was sufficiently flush Of money to put £10 into the Victory Bond Club. Ever since the beginning Of this year he has been applying iri vain foi- repayment, and as a last, effort. he visited Mr. Bottomley.'s office at 26, Kingstreet, on October 19. "I was told," he writes, ."that I could not have ,my money >that day as they were only paying out small , sums to poor people. Fancy a man. being rich who possesses £10!" If a fnan who possesses not £10. but — a very different thing — "club";' shares of that face, value is deemed ; to be' above the poverty line, il suppose that an investor of no. less than £95 would, ipso facto, be regarded in' King-street as wealthy 7 Yet one . investor ' of that amount— £50 m the Victory Bond Club, and £45 m the Thrift Prize Bond Club— concludes his story very pathetically: "SO all I possess for my life .'savings of £95 is a few letters." He is, one. of . the large number of shareholders m the clubs who, relying upon>the advice of their champion, agreed- to exchange into Credit National Bonds at £15 each. He returned his certificates for that purpose m January last. He was entitled to six bonds, and he asked for the return m cash of the odd £s,buthe has never received either the bonds or the cash, or anything else than mere formal acknowledgments of his applications.