PRESIDENT LIBELLED

Southland Times, Issue 19435, 26 December 1924, Page 5

PRESIDENT LIBELLED

EDITOR IMPRISONED GERMAN POLITICAL SENSATION THE HAND OF HINDENBURG. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) BERLIN, December 23. The Magdeburg Court sentenced to three months’ imprisonment Rothardt (editor of a provincial newspaper) for libelling President Ebert, who was accused of helping to prolong the munition workers’ strike in 1918 by publicly urging the workers not to respond to the military order to join the army. GREAT POLITICAL IMPORTANCE. INTERESTING REVELATIONS. LONDON, December 24. (Received December 25, 9 p.m.). The Berlin correspondent of the Morning Post reports a case at Magdeburg, in which an obscure journalist was tried for libelling President Ebert in a little known periodical, is assuming grea: political importance. The Nationalist use the case throughout in a most canning manner to carry out the regular policy of discrediting the Socialists. The decision in the case is most curious. The journalist was imprisoned for insulting the highest official in the Reich, but the libel was held to be partially justifiable on the ground of President Ebert’s connection with the munition workers’ strike in January, 1918. It was, therefore, technically treasonable. The most remarkable evidence tendered was a letter written to President Ebert in December, 1918, in which Field-Marshal von Hindenburg paid a tribute to President Ebert as a loyal German, and .said: “The fate of the nation is in your hands. I and the w’hole army are ready to support you unreservedly.”