The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-06-06
! COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

|
under present rigid government con.
troll, will probably be exceedingly eau
tious about attacking British labo,
leaders, as the result of a recent libe
suit against the London Daily Work.
er, Britain's leading Communist news
paper.
The basis of the suit was a series
of defamatory articles published in the
Daily Worker last December attacking
Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary
of the Trades Union Congress and six
of his colleagues on the general coun-
Gil of the congress. Damages to a tota
of 1,4OO were awarded to the sever
plaintiffs.
Costs were also awarded to the
plaintiffs and an injunction was
granted restraining the defendant, E
R. Pountney, (cited as proprietor
printed and publisher of the Daily
Worker) from publishing these or any
similar libels rejecting upon the per-
sonal integrity Of Citrine and his col.
leagues.
Justice Stable, in his judgment
awarded damages as follows:
Sir Walter Citrine, $500; Johr
Brown, A. Conley, George Hicks, j
Kaylor, 5000 each; Miss Florence Han
cock, G. H. Bagnall, s15O each.
Justice Stable, in his judgment, Gas
summarized in the Times Law Report
expressed the view that each of the
articles was defamatory of all the
plaintiffs, except the last article which
did not mention two of them. The
court was asked to infer the fact that
the articles were not the honest, in.
dependent judgment of the writer's, OF
the defendant, but reflected a policy
dictated from Moscow, and deliberately
intended to achieve an end, and te
achieve it by one means in particular
the end being the cessation of the re.
sistance Of this country to the. attacks
of Germany, and the means being the
sowing of distrust in the minds of or.
ganized workers in this country who
had given their support and their con-
fidence to Sir Walter Citrine and the
other plaintiffs, and the removal Of
persons with views like theirs from
the control of organized labor. In the
courts opinion the libels were the
elimination Of a persistent attempt te
GUST the plaintiffs from their positions
and to undermine the confidence ano
respect which they enjoyed among
their constituents.
Had he no other way of expressing
his view of the libel and of the mar
who was responsible, the justice sale
he would have awarded a very large
sum of money indeed. But he coulc
express his views in terms much
clearer than was possible in money.
X X X
The justice declared that the libels
were inspired from abroad and were
INSCRIPTIONS in their m e h d S
Brought to the bar of justice the de-
fendant had not had the courage tt
go on the witness box and tell the
court, Justice Stable said. He added
that the libels were nothing but an un
scrupulous attack on the character ane
probity of the plaintiffs.
"Let it not be thought, that be-
cause the damages awarded were
small, the plaintiffs were anything
other than persons of the highest pos
sible integrity and sense of duty" hi
commented.
Justice Stable made it clear that hi
did not want to shut out from the
public press the views of anyone, ne
matter how profoundly he might dis
agree with them himself. And he die
not propose to award as damages {
sum which might have the effect o:
putting the newspaper out of action
X 4 4
The decision of the British Judge i:
of interest in the United States, as i
confirms what has often been pointed
out here: That Communists and Com
munist organs are not Independent
but merely mouthpieces of the Moscow
tyranny, slavishly echoing what Mos
COW says. In view of the repeated
demonstrations of this, it is strange
that Communist organs can still be re
garded as anything but puppets O.
Stain and his Red gang.