THE CHANNEL HOAX.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20473, 30 July 1928, Page 13

THE CHANNEL HOAX.

DR DOROTHY LOGAN’S WHIM. APPEARANCE BEFORE PEERS. "I WAS SUCH AN IDIOT.” Dr Dorothy Logan, of Harley street, London, who hoaxed the world with her bogus Channel swim last October, was recently summoned before a committee of the General Medical Council to answer the following accusation :—“ That on November 7, 1927, at the Mansion House, you were convicted of knowingly and wilfully making certain statements false in material particulars in a statutory declaration made and declared by you on October 12, 1927, under and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835, and were fined £IOO and ordered to pay 10 guineas costs.” The 30 members of the General Medical Council sat to hear the case. The little galleries were full, and in one of them there were nine women. Dr Logan, wearing a leather overcoat, drove herself in her car to the tribunal. Beneath the leather overcoat she wore a blue-grey knitted dress, and was hatless when she took her place in the box before the council. She carried a small- brown attache case, and took out a typewritten document, which she laid on her knee. In reply to the president, Sir Donald Mac Alister, Dr Logan intimated that she was not represented by counsel. After the summons had been read by the registrar, Mr Harper, appearing for the council, asked if it was desirable that Mr Carey, the principal witness called by Dr Logan, should be present in the chamber during the hearing. Sir Donald Mac Alister replied that it was desirable that Mr Carey should withdraw. The latter accordingly left the room. THE THOUSAND POUNDS PRIZE. Mr Harper defined a statutory declaration, and said that the law attached the same penalty to a wilful misstatement in one as to perjury in a court of law. “During the 1927 season,” related Mr Harper, “ a great deal appeared in the press about swimming the Channel, and accounts of several successful swims were published. The News of the World had offered a prize of £IOOO to the first British-born woman who should beat the record of an American woman who did the swim in 13 hours 34 minutes. Dr Logan, who is a great swimmer, herself took the view—rightly or wrongly —that not all the swims which had been so advertised were genuine. She conceived the idea first of attempting the Channel swim herself, and, secondly, if she failed, to present that she had succeeded, to obtain the prize and afterwards to return the money and publish the real facts, so that these swims should be under adequate supervision in the future. “In August Dr Logan wrote to the News of the World as follows: — “‘Will you please note that I wish to be a candidate. . • . My arrangements are already made, and I await conditions of time and tide. As lam a slow swimmer my chances are practically nil, and for this roason, and also because I do not wish to be inconvenienced by a public start, I trust you will regard this as confidential. If lam by any chance successful I hope you will respect my nom dep mer.’ ” CONFESSION OF THE HOAX. “ The name Dr Logan swam under wa s ‘Mona M'Clelland,’” counsel explained. Mr Harper then went on to describe the hoax stage by stage. He told the council how Dr Logan went to Folkstone, prepared the memorandum, which was left in a hotel, and then crossed to France; how she entered the water at Cap Gris Nez, and, after swimming for about two hours, was taken on board the motorboat which returned to Folkstone. Then he told how she swam ashore and claimed to have conquered the Channel in record time. Counsel further described Dr Logans visit to the offices of the News of the World, and her signing of the statutory declaration. Next day she returned to the office, where there was a little ceremony, and a cheque for £IOOO was handed to her by Lord Riddell. After reading the declaration, Mr Harper said that, except that she was a British-born subject, that she entered the sea at Cap Gris Nez and swam ashore at Folkstone, there was not, from beginning to end, one word of truth in it. After her “swim” Dr Logan was feted on all hands, and received the most embarassing congratulations, but in a very short time she was back in the News of the World office telling them of the hoax. Dr Logan made no pecuniary profit out of the incident; in fact she said she had spent about £3O of her own money in connection with the affair. , AN EXPRESSION OF SORROW. Dealing with the false declaration by Dr Logan, Mr Harper added: “ I do not wish to over-stress this matter, but aii act of this kind cannot be looked upon lightly. It is not primarily that Dr Logan is a medical practitioner. It is because, like every one of us, she is a citizen who must pay special regard to speaking the truth in circumstances in which the law says that her word may be accepted in establishing an important fact. The council exercises its funcfi o requiring the nighest standard of conduct from those on the register, and expects that in the matter of citizenship, they will not fail to conform to the law, and will set an example to the public.” When Dr Logan was asked for her defence, she urged that she pleaded guilty at the Mansion House because she could not produce witnesses who knew the circumstances in which she signed the document. The conviction had nothing to do with her professional work or her character. Her purpose was to put Channel swimming on a proper basis. In conclusion Dr Logan exclaimed: “I am sorry I was such an idiot. I did not know that a typewritten document in a newspaper office could be legal.” DECISION BY THE COUNCIL. Half an hour was spent in private deliberation before the decision was announced. The president then stated that the council were of opinion that Dr Logan had imperfectly realised the responsibility resting on her to refrain from appending her signature to any statement the contents of which she could not vouch for being true. “ The council had, hoyvever, come to the conclusion,” added Sir Donald, “ that perhaps the punishment to which you have already been subjected and the proceedings here to-day may have enabled you to realise afresh and more fully the responsibility that rests upon you. Believing that your conduct henceforward will be worthy of the profession, the council has decided not to erase your name from the register,” Dr Logan listened in tense silence to the president’s judgment, but as soon as she had left the council room she gave expression to her joy. “Isn’t it fine! ” she exclaimed to her friends, who flocked to offer their congratulations.