ALLEGED LIBEL

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 19

ALLEGED LIBEL

SYDNEY, March 22. Captain John Strachan, who is a wellknown master mariner, has commenced an action against the proprietors of the Sydney Morning Herald claiming £SOOO damages for libel. The- alleged libel was- contained ia statements said to have been made by; Dr Inner, Consul-general for Germany, and published in the Herald on May 17. The article was headed " Alleged Kidnapping," and referred to a voyage by Captain Strachan in the ketch Envy, charging him with recruiting the natives of Tobi Island under a promise to returnthem to their homes, which promise it was alleged he failed to keep. The article also alleged that Captain Strahan had used efforts to induce the Tobi Islanders to replace the German flag with, the British flag. Captain Strachan's reply h a denial of the charges. He sa.id lie h~d taken the ■Tobi boys for zrips in the .>vv on their own' free will to get a luiowiedge of the world, but he had not kidnapped or recruited them. He also denied the flag incident. • Mareh 23 The hearing of the libel action brought by Captain Strachan; against the Sydney Morning Herald .chiming £SOOO damages was continued to-day. Counsel for defendant pleaded that the paper had done nothing more than rjublish particulars of the controversy, between Captain Strachan and Dr T-mer, wnich Captain Strachan had provoked. If the statements were libellous it wa» a purely technical libel. March 24. The jury awarded Captain Strachaa £IOOO damages in his action against the Sydney Morning Hecald. , The Chief Justice, in summing up, said it did not matter how fair a newspaper was in opening its columns to two disputants in the publication of their versions side by side; fairness did not shield a newspaper from an action at law should a defamatory statement be contained ia what was published. A court of law was the only tribunal to which was given the privilege of making statements of a serious nature for and against.