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) Serely~stated —what—the—taw —was—TraTety | that TOWN ite silel Av STORIE TAC “but something was intcturater but did ‘Rat affect the reputation of the plaintiff, he could not recover anything, H¢ conceded thar the Act itself did not apply because the Proceedings had been commenced before it ca into i aw a plaintift entitled to recover damages assessed by a jury having regard to the con- | duct of the defendants. ‘Section $ had | effected a change in the taw, and was not ' in substance the law at the time when the : proceedings were started. : i Mr. Satmon, addr | how any man could have the tc come into Court in the circumstances of HER end ask a British jury to give hrm} ey. Me what the defendanis had tide . che plaintiff was true he was “hoa atid mei 30 entitled to anything, Truth was a Cony fod | Kigfence, ie defendanis had said thaw wap. a spy and, on what he had hina itted, ‘was there the slightest doub? oft) Mhedsuth of that? From 1945 until ccrialy; 1950 he had been a paid secret agent often régime in Prague, where from 1943 the ( yHists held the dominant positions in’ ermment, and it was not safe {ah Gattosiovakian who was an anti-Gomer Imanist to return. The plaintiff took many; fin the régime in Prague for areas i io! therCzechoslovakians in London and re} iBY what they were doing. He had a ia trae he did not know of anybody -excchtal ia | étbuse of what he had "reported, wba Hd could amane know pee beNind the iron curtain. ain | S94 course no complaint was nade) Bécause no one in London knew tha Aye! pill was carrying on that dispusth c. AM the time he, was pretending’ Anti-Communistic. Could they thing of anything baser than thai, or of grealen ageachery ? : . Referring 1 the alleged libel, counsel sai that i was suggested ihat the sting in was tha the plaintiff was a spy. “The jury might think that that had been proved beyond a peradventure, It was fantastic, was it nol, that this man me he nd ash for damages for Couriset | Stgeesied that read fairly the arlicle did not vy that he was the link with the missing [gees J} SuREgSCD that he might be et ia “atti Taajnc init oe oF RLENUS) SECRI fkoew this’ drtadfut "i ' plainiitt ‘The plaintifl had come before the jury said that he bad -taken money fc secrets of his friends in Lond: ic in ‘whic! and now he said he wanted them to give him damages for fibet. He (counsel) ho) was engaged, selling his friends, nod her gad pe RaS Rite at ey | that by their verdict the jury would express their contempt comemet for actions of this sort. Mx. his behaviour and their SULLIVAN, making his final address fo the jury, said that in Hobbs ¥. Tiniing & Co. Ltd. ({1939] 2 KB. 1), Lord Justice Greer (at p. 46) had said’ that aman did not lose his right to damageg character was not free from because reproach, and if newspapers for their ses. falsely alleged that he had der Ave out to be blacker than th ea! acter than ¢ Fay NO LONGER IN FRANCE * A 2sReferring to the alicged libel, he (coun $4 in he ordinary sense of the word wa rm | ferno say in France that he was a spy ? dia Was no longer in France when they éale HRMS holds spy Strauss." "Third mam “with missing diplomats 2" It was #id by ‘the defence that because there wat gee it was all right. If the law colerated a thing all, our situations as citigens < it peril. The papers cor ything into aa interrogative ie mr ames hasis of fis [counset’s) whol ment was that this article meant thal dhe iT was probably associated, or alge. ith ad the watrcly was in fact associ " mikting ‘diplomat’. He sugec " wets meas prainiwt said meant; that that meaning was defamatayyy, and that there -were two or three mie Statements of fae’. He asked for a verdict in favour of the plaintit Igfex such temperate and modesttamages as Me jury thought fit. _His Lornsuiy said. that he would begin his summing-up in the morning, The hearing was adjourned, Solicitors—Messrs, Edward Davies, Nelson & Co.; Messrs. Lewis. & Lewisnaind }Sishews 468, vn raters aarncheee misconduct the juny even a man of B® ahafacter ought not to have his character ¢ proved tase |. |