LIBEL ALLEGED

Chronicle (Levin), 30 October 1946, Page 5

LIBEL ALLEGED

Press Ass?i.-

British Officer Op Trial COURT-MARTIAL IN CAIRO

By Telegraph

Copyrighi

Received Wednesday, 11 a.m. CAIRO, Oct. 29. Completing his defence, Lieutenant Kenneth Alexander Gourlay, R.A.O.C., who is being courtmartialled at Kasr-el-Nil barracks on two charges of alleged libellous statements concerning the formei Secretary of the Palestine Government, Sir John Shaw, and the Sixth Airborne Division, testified that* his reference to the Sixth Airborne , Ivision referred only to their social conduct, and not to their military duties. His criticisni of the Palestine Government was not meant to imply the use of Nazi methods. Major R. S. Buer, formerly attached to the headquarters of Gourlay's nnit, testified that he was "shocked when the libel charge was made." He added: "Our appcintment of f censor was made to safeguard both the unit and the writer. We encouraged liberty of expre'ssion in political discussion." Sergeant Norris, editor of the newspaper in which the article was published, said that Gourlay's article "contained nothing which was not known to members of the unit, and the newspaper quite often printed strong articles on political issues.". It is alleged that Gourlay, in a letter to the editor of his unit's newspaper, wrote: "Remove the Sixth Airborne Division and other recently arrived British troops from the country at once, preferably to Britain, where if they go on behaving as they are allowed to behave at the moment there will be such an outcry as will get it stopped immediately." ■ It is also alleged that Gourlay, in another letter to the same editor, said: "Let the entire British Administration in Palestine from Sir John Shaw downward be recalled and an inquiry into their trusteeship made. The results, no doubt, would be even more revealing than the Nuremberg trials."