LIBEL ALLEGATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18962, 12 March 1936, Page 12

LIBEL ALLEGATION

AIRWOMAN'S CLAIM

plane "racket" article

LONDON, Jan. 16. A libel art ion by .Mrs. Mildred Mary Bruce, tlic. airwoman, wife of the Hun. Victor Bruce, against Odhanis Press, Limited, in respect of an article headed "Plane Smuggling: the New Racket," ill the People of September 8 was mentioned in the Court of Appeal yesterday. Mr. Valentine Holmes, for Odhams Press, appeared in support of an appeal against an order of Mr. Justice Lewis in Chambers reversing an order by Master Baker that Mrs. Bruce should give certain particulars of her statement of claim.

He stated that the article suggested that, to avoid the embargo on the export, of war planes to Abyssinia, commercial aircraft has been shipped to some neutral country, and had there been converted into bombers and fighters and then sent to Abyssinia. It went on :

"This aeroplane-running was started by an enterprising young Englishwoman, who began operations during the Bolivia-Paraguay war. By means of a number of aliases she bought up all the second-hand aircraft and their component parts that were on the market.

"Her problem was to find a secret, storage place for these aircraft, and ultimately she used the vaults of a (lisused church in the southern counties. There the machines were ready for shipment to America. In this way she was able to evade the embargo." In her statement of claim, continued Mr. Holmes, .Mrs. Bruce alleged that the article was meant to refer to her. The defendants' application for particulars, and the order made by the Master, was that Mrs. Bruce should give particulars of the allegation that the words- complained of were published of her and meant, her.

Mr. St. John Field, for Mrs. Bruce, argued that the statement of claim told the defendants exactly what case they had to meet. ft was evidence that the defendants were asking for. Lord Justice Greer: There are hundreds of young Englishwomen who flv aeroplanes. And it, is quite conceivable that the article might refer to no one but a young woman in the imagination of the writer.

Mr. Field: Surely that would he a strange attitude for a newspaper to take up—to allege that the article is pure invention?

Lord Justice Slesser: 1 don't know Do you ever read the newspapers? Mr. Field : Yes, certain newspapers The court reserved judgment.