TO KEEP SILENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 288, 6 December 1933, Page 7

TO KEEP SILENT

MAN DEMANDS MONEY THREATS AGAINST THE KING HADDON TO BE TRIED By Telegraph— P. esa Association—Copy right} LONDON, Doc. 4. Clarence Haddon, charged with demanding money by menaces from the King, was remanded for a week, when he will be committed for trial at the Old Bailey. Prosecuting counsel said that the only meaning of the very large number of letters written to His Majesty \./.s that unless money was paid Haddon would publish the fact that ho was the Duke of Clarence’s illegitimate son. Haddon had never produced any witness or document 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 13/3/33, in which Haddon said that the writing was “unknown to the people who are backing my case,’’ a phrase which counsel asked the Court to bear iu mind. The letter proceeded: “All I ask is about £6OO a year private income, and enough money to start a boarding house.” In other letters he said that he was going to sell all of the letters to the Highest bidder. “I have been deprived of my 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 .lame of the Royal Family.” Haddon also threatened to display a poster on a sandwich board. Another letter referring to a dinner which the Prince of Wales attended said: “I cannot be in the position of your son, enjoying the fat of the land, whereas 1 am now in a back room and forced to wash my own and the Royal F.-mily’s dirty linen in public for a living.”' Copies to Foreign Rulers. He explained that he was sending •u, ics ot the letter to foreign rulers, and enclosed a cony sent to the Prcsiient of the Unitcu States. He added that, he should “be enabled to settle comfortably in one of our colonies instead of being forced to distribute pamphlets throughout Britain and collect signatures lor a petition to the House of Commons or the League of Nations in the hope that the Royal family will at last content their handiwork. ’ ’ Another letter said that suicide was one alternative, but was impossible because of principle. “Another is to throw myself on the Royal Family’s I mercy and seek the right to live the rest, of my days as an honourable citizen.” He also suggested that unless he was helped he would show the Royal Family in their true colours to the Economic Conference delegates, causing them to leave England with a nasty taste in their mouths. Counsel submitted that the letters contained demands with menaces. The police gave evidence that they found copies of posters at Haddon’s home. Haddon’s general character had previously been good. Bail was refused.

A message dated London, November 29, lead: A man appearing before a magistrate at Bow {Street this morning was charged with demanding money by menaces from His Majesty the King. The. Daily Herald says the man is a consulting engineer and his name is Clarence Guy Gordon Haddon; he is 43 vears of age. Haddon was arrested last night at an address at Islington by officers of the special branch of Scotland Yard after an all-day search. It was considered advisable at one period yesterday to put a special guard outside Buckingham Palace. Everybody entering the courtyard, which usually is free of entry, was subjected to close scrutiny and questioned. Haddon is six feet tall and of commanding presence. He was dressed in a smart lounge suit and carried a typewriter with him to Bow Street, where the Herald says fingerprints will be taken and he wi’i be placed in a cell.