SLANDER CASE

Southland Times, Issue 22492, 29 January 1935, Page 5

SLANDER CASE

SIR JOHN SIMON

VINDICATION CAUSES SATISFACTION

COMMENT BY PRESS

(British Official Wireless.) Rugby, January 26.

Sir John Simon’s successful action for slander against a speaker who had alleged that he had a pecuniary interest in munitions which affected the Government’s policy is welcomed, irrespective of party, as a vindication of British political morality. The Daily Herald (Labour) says: Sir John’s vindication in court of his personal integrity will give genuine satisfaction to everyone who had any care for morality in public life. The charge made was the most terrible that could lie brought against him of being influenced in his politics by any pecuniary motive, but once the accusation was made it was essential to rebut it. And we who have on occasions criticized his policies unsparingly are glad that his honour—which should never have been impugned—has been publicly vindicated. . . The Daily Telegraph (Conservative) says: British public life is mercifully free from corruption of the kind so wilfully suggested by the defendant in this case, but statements have been made, both in Britain and abroad in the past few years, to the effect that members of the British Cabinet have large holdings in armament firms and are moulding the British policy to their own ends. Unfortunately it is less easy to take action when such statements are made outside this country, but those who have been sincerely misled should note that the Foreign Secretary deliberately sold investments made out of office at a loss rather than incur the suggestion that he was benefiting, even in a minor degree, by the sale of explosives. *