THREATS AT KING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19665, 6 December 1933, Page 7

THREATS AT KING

PROSECUTION IN LONDON BOLD ATTACK ON ROYALTY United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 4. Clarence Gay Gordon Haddon was remanded for a week, when he will be committed for trial at Old Bailey on a charge of addressing threatening letters to the King. The prosecuting counsel said the only meaning of a very large number of letters written to His Majesty was that unless money was paid. Haddon would publish the fact that he was the Duke of Clarence s illegitimate son. Haddon never produced any witness or documents, which could lead one to suspect that his claim was anything but absolutely and entirely groundless. Counsel read a number of letters. The first was dated March 13, 1933, in which Haddon said he was writing "unknown to the people who are backing my case ’—a phrase which counsel asked the Court to bear In mind. The letter proceeded:—"AH I ask is about £6OO a year private income and enough money to start a boarding house." In other letters he said he was going to sell all the letters to the highest bidder. “I have been deprived of the right to live a clean life owing to being the Illegitimate son of your Majesty’s brother. Now I will be a by-word to the world, and so will the name of the Royal Family." Haddon also threatened to display a poster on a sandwich board. Another letter, referring to a dinner the Prince of Wales attended, said: “I cannot be In the position of your son, enjoying the fat of the land, whereas I am now in a back room, forced to wash my own and the Royal Family's dirty linen in public for a living.” He explained that a copy had been sent to the President of the United States, and added he should be enabled to settle comfortably in one of the colonies. Instead of being forced to distribute pamphlets throughout Britain, and collect signatures for a petition to the House of Commons or the League of Nations. Another letter said that suicide was one alternative, but impossible because of principle. “Another Is to throw myself on the Royal Family's mercy and seek the right to live the rest of my days as an honourable citizen." He also suggested that unless helped, he would show the Royal Family in Its true colours to the Economic Conference delegates, causing them to leave England with a nasty taste in their mouths. Counsel submitted that the letters continued demands with menaces. The police gave evidence that they found copies of posters at Haddon’s home. Haddon's general character previously had been good. Bail was refused.