ACTION FOR LIBEL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 987, 30 November 1910, Page 7

ACTION FOR LIBEL.

ISLAND TRADER'S GRIEVANCE. ..By Telegraph—Press .association—Copyriellt. . (Eeo. November 29, 9 p.m.) Sydney, November 29. As aeecroel to.his action, against the •"Sydney. Morning Hera I," cabled, on March" 22, Captain John Stracbon has commenced an action against Dr. Irmer, the German. Cbnsul'General, at Sydney, claiming £6000 damages for alleged libel and slander. The' action is founded on a statement mado by Dr. Inner and published in the press prior to Captain Strachan's case against tho "Herald," alleging that tho Gorman .authorities desired to get hold of Captain Strachan in order to recover a fine inflicted on him for recruiting natives at the German Islands, also to recover the cost, of bringing back the -natives Captain Strachan was declared to have taken from tho island of Tobi- '■

Captain. Strachau claims that these _statements impute that be wa3 guilty of kidnapping and carrying on an infamous and dishonourable -trade. Captain. StracbanV first case was in connection with'■'the"'publication of .an article in the "Sydney Morning Herald" o£ Stay 17,1909, which ho .alleged reflected upon his'conduct unjustifiably.. Ho claimed .£50.00. damages, and was awarded ,£IOOO. Counsel for defendant in the action pleaded that the paper had done nothing inoro • than publish ■ the controversy' between Strachan and Dr.Trmer, Consul-General for Germany,: which IS.trachin -provoked. If , the statements were libellous, it was purely a technical libel. : ' ■ . '■' \ The Chief Justice, in summing up, said it did not matter how fair a newspaper was in opening its columns to two disputants in the publication of their versions ride by'side, such fairness did not shield ■a .'newspaper from an action at. law should a defamatory, statement.be contained in-what was published.