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Southland Times, Issue 19123, 15 December 1923, Page 5

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LORD DOUGLAS SENTENCED JUDGE’S SCATHING SUMMING UP “A POLITICIAN’S VITUPERATION.” (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, December 14. At the Old Bailey to-day, the trial was concluded of Lord Alfred Douglas, who was indicted on a charge of criminally libelling Mr Winston Churchill in a pamphlet entitled: “The Murder of Kitchener and the Truth about the Battle of Jutland and the Jews,” in which he alleged that the late Sir Ernest Cassell gave Mr Churchill a large sum for issuing a false report of the Battle of Jutland, thereby assisting to bring off a financial coup. Mr Justice Avory, in summing up, said he did not believe any counsel had ever been allowed more latitude than Mr R. Hayes, whose address to the jury was a mixture of diatribe and a politician’s vituperation of Mr Winston Churchill. His Honour emphasised that Lord Alfred Douglas persisted in the libels after their falsehood had been proved in the Morning Post action, and without the slightest grounds for believing that he was telling the truth. His defence had been conducted in a most opprobious manner. The Jury returned a verdict of guilty and accused was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in the second division. His Honour ordered Lord Alfred Douglas at the expiration of the sentence to find security to keep the peace, particularly towards Mr Churchill. Failing his doing so, he would have to undergo a further six months’ imprisonment.