EXPLORER’S LIBEL SUIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20334, 16 February 1928, Page 9

EXPLORER’S LIBEL SUIT

ACTION AGAINST DAILY EXPRESS VERDICT FOR THE DEFENDANTS. (Frees Association—By Telcgrapli—Copyright.) LONDON, February 14. In the Mitchell-Hedges case judgment was given for the defendants. —A. aud N.Z. Cable. FAILURE TO CALL WITNESSES. THE JUDGE’S SUMMING UP. LONDON, February 14. Chief Justice Hewart, in summing up in the Mitchell-Hedges case, said that it was remarkable that Mitchell-Hedges" had not called Bagot Gray, the originator of the hoax, and the other participants to swear that lie was not associated with it. It would not have been surprising had the jury intimated that after bearing MitchellHedges’s evidence they were satisfied that the title of Fellow of the Royal Geo graphical Society and Fellow of the Zoo logical Society for a guinea, th e thing becomes grotesque. When we see these titles enumerated on the title page of a book or menu card, we cannot help feel mg that the man must be an imposter. The jury may or may not think that Mr Jowitt put the case over high when he said that Mitchell-Hedcres was an imposter.—A. and N.Z. Cable. ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE JURY. TWO MEN CHARGED. LONDON, Februrv 14. Two men were arrested in MitchellHedges’s fiat and were charged with attempting to obtain £IOOO by false pretences. The prosecution alleged that they offered to influence tl; e jury in the libel case by the payment of £IOOO. MitchellHedges informed the police.—A. and N.Z. Cable.