£20 FOR A KISS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 10

£2O FOR A KISS

BUSINESSMAN FINED LIPSTICK ON HIS FACE (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 21. A Sydney importer, August Joseph Romer, 30, was fined £2O in the Sydney Central Police Court this week for having unlawfully assaulted Judith Lipman—in other words, for having kissed her. Constable R. C. Lee said that Miss Lipman made a complaint to him in Bathurst street, A little later, the defendant appeared, and witness said to him: "Miss Lipman complains that you kissed her a littlp while ago." The defendant denied that he had done so. The constable then said he directed Romer's attention to the fact that he had some pink substance, like lipstick, on his top lip. Romer replied: "I cannot see it. If it is there, I must have got it off my wife."

Miss Lipman said that she was 18 years old. She called at Romer's office in answer to an advertisement, and was engaged to do certain work. She typed some letters in the morning, and after lunch Romer asked her to sit at his desk. After showing her some things, he placed his arm on her shoulder. Witness said she then rose and returned to her own desk. She was looking over the work Romer had asked her to do when he. came over to her, placed one hand on her shoulder, the other under her chin, and kissed her. Then he said he was sorry, and that it would not happen again. Rushing out of the office, she went to the constable. " I have never had a charge of this sort made against me before," said Romer. He denied that he kissed Miss Lipman. He had his hand on the back of her chair when she was seated at the desk. OtherWise, he did not touch her. "I did not touch her under the chin," Romer added. "When she left she said nothing about kissing her."

Mr Stevenson, S.M., said he could not look on the matter as trivial. " The incident will leave a nasty impression on Miss Lipman," he added. Commenting upon the case. Mr A. S. Henry. M.L.A-, who is a wellknown Sydney solicitor, said that an employer committed an assault if he merely touched his typist without her consent, no matter how deeply solicitous he might be for her comfort and welfare. "The best way to treat typists," he added, " is to give them a neat, compact little office all to themselves—for the typists' protection and also the employers.

Mr Henry revealed that many Sydney colleges have '' black lists" of undesirable employers. ,