LIBEL ACTION

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14253, 2 January 1920, Page 7

LIBEL ACTION

I "FLOGGING OF WOMEN." BRITISH OFFICER. AWARDED DAMAGES. The libel action brought by Captain Charles Fitzpatrick, British" political officer in Nigeria, against ..Mr J. E. Taylor, proprietor of the African Telegraph, recently concluded in tho King's Bench, London, with a verdict for the plaintiff and £4OO damages. The African Co-operative Corporation, Ltd., were also sued as tho distributors of the paper, but the jury found that the company did not publish the i libel, and entered judgment in their i favour, with costs. The jury expressed | tho opinion that if flogging is still i practised in Nigeria, steps should be I taken by the. proper authorities to j Sinn it. The libel complained of was con- • tained in an article in defendant's paper, headed "Flogging of Women in Nigeria," it being stated that plaintiff had ordered two women to be flogged naked in the public market place. An African native said he was in court when th© two women were sentenced, and he afterwards saw them placed .:- the / stocks, naked, and •').'-':-• ■ r Te said he had seen women ~ i nearly every day. PLAINTIFF'S DENIAL. Captain Fitzpatrick was recalled to give rebutting evidence, and denied telling the native magistrate that he wanted the women flogged. The story was completely utterly untrue, not a word of truth i n it. He had never recognised as being proper the flogging of women. It was discouraged in the native courts, with a view to its final disappearance. Further questioned, he said he doubted whether the two J women were ever flogged at all. He was perfectly certain they were not lwaten in the way described, because in th e whole of his experience in Kigeria he had never heard of such a thing happening. Witness added: "I may say I have been there 12 years in a responsible position, arid I am prepared to hack what goes on there against other people who don't know so much about the country as I do." UNPOPULAR MEASURES. Cross-examined, . plaintiff said he had never seen a woman beaten in Nigeria. The witnesses had come into court with a desire to injure him, and, through him. the administration. One thing that made him unpopular was that he would never sign liquor permits for natives in Nigeria. He did not ho'd with liquor being supplied to Africans, and that made him very unpopular. Another thing that had made him unpopular was that he had stopped a very profitable procuring trade. These things, said witness, would furnish motives for animosity towards him in the minds of some people. Mr Rigby Swift: Because of the purity of your administration out there, these three men have come here deliberately to lie about you? Plaintiff: That is what I say. The jury returned a verdict as stated.