LONDON LIBEL ACTION.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15046, 14 April 1919, Page 6

LONDON LIBEL ACTION.

LE BAS V. THE "DAILY MAIL."

VERDICT FOR DEFENDANT.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association)

London, April 4. In the Le Bas-"Daily Mail'^case, plaintiff said he regarded Mr Lloyd George's accession as a national misfortune. Sir Douglas Haig and Lord Milner; and not Mr Lloyd George, were responsible for Marshal Foch's appointment as generalissimo. Plaintiff denounced Lord Jellicoe's and Sir ■William Robertson's dismissals. Payment for the insertion of articles" was not" new. Mr Cobden and Mr Bottomley had adopted that method. Lo Bas said the articles complained of by the "Daily Mail" were signed by well known men. He spent £730 in publishing them in fifty to sixty newspapers. He acted with honest views in the country's interests. He was never a supporter of Mr Lloyd George since the Xorthcliffe press undermined Mr Asquith. fie would have chosen General Smuts as Prime Minister. Defending counsel explained that they had not charged plaintiff with trying to assist the enemy or of unworthy motives. They never suggested that he was anything but a voyal-minded gentleman, but he had conducted his political campaign in an unworthy and deceptive manner. ....... The special jury gave a verdict for the defendants.