MARCONI CONTRACT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 17

MARCONI CONTRACT.

THE ALLEGED LIBELS ON MR. GODFREY ISAACS. EDITOR COMMITTED FOR TRIAL, Mr. Cecil Chesterton, editor of tho "New. formerly tlie "Eye Witness," appeared before Sir Albert de Rutzen at Bow Street Polico Court, London, on February 28, to an adjourned summons chaining liim ivith printing and publishing in the "Eye "Witness" and the' "New Witness," certain libollons and defamatory statements of and concerning Mr. Godfrey Charles Isaacs, the managing director of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company (Limited). In the, articles Mr. Chesterton had said: "What progress is 'the Marconi 6candal making? . . , Everybody knows the record of Isaacs and his father, and his uncle, and, in general, the whole family. Isaacs's brother is chairman of the Marconi Company. It has. therefore, h'een secretly arranged between Isaacs and Samuel that the British publio shall givo tho Marconi Company a very-large sum of money/through the agency; of'tne 6aid Samuel and for tho benefit of the. said Isaacs." "When Samuel was caught with his hand iu tho till (or Isaacs, if you'prefer to put it (hat way) the (Marconi) shares naturally 'slumped' . . "Tho truth, which is perfectly clear on fact's such as this, is that an appalling, scandal, the liko of which can hardly be paralleled iu recent years in the' lifo of any rival nation, has been inflicted 'upon, our public life by a particularly, low and nasty gang. '• , "Of two things one—cither shameless theft out of the pocket of tho taxpayers is openly permitted to public servants, and the exposure of it openly and admittedly prosecuted, by men whom the same public servants have the power of appointment to v administer justice, or such things mnst be done under' tho cover of public service. In the first case it ceases to he corruption and becomes bare-faced loot." / ' An article published on January 23 ■ said:— "We said .'last week .that the conspirators' who engineered the Marconi deal were on tho run. In view of what has happened since, no one can doubt that .wo were right. Samuel, the PostmasterGeneral, and his cousins in. the city who pulled the wires over Indian silver and Indian loan, tho Amsterdam Jews with whom these cousins maintained such .curious and suspicious secret relations; Isaacs, who qualified by a hammering on the Stock Exchange for. the post of At-torney-General; his brother, the chairman of the defaulting St. David's_ Gold Mines Company and tho author of its erratic dividends; George, the keeper' of the nation's Exchequer—are all-smitten with panic." - • • The last extract quoted by counsel said:— "The files in (Somerset House of the Isaacs companies cry out for vengeance on the man who created them, who manipulated ■ them, who filled them with his, own creatures, and , worked them solely, for his'own ends,' and sought to get rid of some of- them when' thej; had served' his purpose by casting the' expense of burying them on the public service. We call upon the Attorney-General to do his duty with regard to this man, Godfrey Charles Isaacs." ' _ :. Mr. Chesterton 6aid that Mr. Muir, counsel for Mr. Isaacs, had endeavoured to ..create a prejudice against him by suggesting that he went whining about going, before the Marconi Committee instead' of that court. He whs perfectly satisfied to come before that tribunal, as, of course, the committee could not try him for any libel on Mr. Godfrey Isaacs. Mr.' Chesterton described it as "an amazing thing" that Mr. Isaacs should not have taken' the first opportunity of denying on oath tho published tilings which ho alleged were false-and iniu'-ious to him. Sir Albert Do Rutzen, the magistrate: .But if it goes for trial he will bo cnil;d. Call for Mr. Isaacs's Evidence. Mr. Chestorton: Might 1 1 suggest that the first stage of tho proceedings, was the stage for Mr. Isaacs to ; go into the .box to clear himself? (Murmurs from tho rear of the court were quickly suppressed by .the usher.) ; Mr. Chesterton: I would suggest that if : anyone made . statements against me I fshould los£ no time at all in going into the witness-box and denying them; That 'course Mr.' Isaacs has not pursued;. ; Not only did Mr. Isaacs keep out of ;tho box, said Mr. Chesterton; but also ■they had no legal evidence up to that moment that Mr. Isaacs was living. Of course, ho was awaro that Mr. Isaacs was alive, and he believed hi.n io bu in court. In the laughter «liic'n followed'this rt.mark Mr. Isaacs, who was sitting beside, his counsel, joined. Mr. Muir had said his accusations against 'Mr. Isaacs personally were few* and vague; "I say they were not few, 'and they were the reverse of vague," he exclaimed, and referred to an article .in the issue Of January. 2, called "Mr. God-frey-'Tsaacs's Past," ' which dealt with twenty-one.'companies' with which Mr. Godfrey Isaacs had . been connected. It would doubtless astonish tho niagistrato to learn that that 'article was not included in tho indictment and was no part of the libel. Mr,-..Muir: You are quits wrong; that is included. ' ■ ; The defendant: It was not' included when .you applied to Mr. Justice Buckniil. ' i Mr. Muir: You are quite wrong; it is in the affidavit. The defendant: I was not aware of that. No jury would convict, continued Mr. Chesterton, unless Mr. Isaacs went into thoj .box and explained away tho figures which were taken from the, hies of Somerset House. The case against Mr. Isaacs rested entirely upon these companies, and that was practically all he had said about Mr. Isaacs/ Ho had said ho was the kind of person with whom tlio British Government ought not' to have negotiated in the riianner in which they'did. That he was prepared to support' when Mr. Isaacs went into the box and answered, the .questions he would put to him.. ' ' " Sir Albert: I understood you to say, Mr. Muir, that you oalled no witnesses. You said you wero not going to call Jlr. Isaacs. _ v Mr. Muir: Not here, but I iliall call him, as I said, when the plea of justi-' fication is filed. Mr.. Chesterton: I hope no'unfortunate occurrcnco. will. prevent Mr.. Isaacs appearing. . Mr. Muir: I'hopo not. ■ ; Tho. Politicianj, Mr. Chesterton said that in en far as tho charges against tho negotiators were serious, tho person accused was. not Mr. Isaacs at all. Tho most that had been said about Mr/Isaacs was that ho obtained tho contract-which ho would not havo obtained on'tlioso terms had ho not possessed influence in political circles. Tho people who wero accused in those ,parts of his articles wero tho politicians concerned. Did anyone suggest that was a very serious thing to say about a company promotor of the typo of Mr. Isaacs— that he did not say, "I won't have it because I think possibly my brother has made it more invourablo to mo than it would otherwise bo"? It was true ho had said strong things about Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, but in connection with his career as a company promoter and all theso mines by which ho had got moiioy out of tho investing, public. These were the things he ha,d said about him, and these wero tho tilings lie proposed to justify. Mr. Muir was the Treasury counsel, but i ho did not appear as Treasury counsel. Nevertheless, as soon as ho got into the court he forgot that he was not Treasury couusel for the time, and instead of fighting for his client he fought ftfr Mr. Samuel, Sir ftiifus Isaacs, and tho Government generally. "I must either bo accused of libelling the Government, in which case I will defend myself on that line, or of libelling Mr. Isaacs, and I will then defend myself on that, Tho whole attempt so far' has been to confusc tho ,S Mr". Chesterton contended that out of the twenty most prominent writers in this country twelve had contributed to his miner, and ho mentioned the names of Sir A. Quiller-Couch, Mr. H. G. Wells, Mr. G. Bernard Shaw, una m\ lulaire Bclloe. It was absurd to represent, (he paper as a sort of' "gutter rag" trying to gain notoriety. It was not his business or his habit'to cry up his own wares. 1I« left that lo people who discovered tho mountains of Wales. (Laughter.) His motive Iu writing the articles was |

solely public spirit. He had brought tho charges beciuse ho believed that in the secrecy whicli surrounded all our politics .very evil things were growing up which would be a danger" to the country. Tho justification of his action was that tho Houso of Commons itself was so far satisfied that an inquiry committeo had been appointed. If lie had not expressed himself very strongly, if they hail not raised a considerable agitation it was his belief that tho committeo would never have been appointed, because tho public would not have listened to very inild language. Some light had now been thrown on tho case, but he thought it was so far small compared with tho light which would bo thrown when they could induce Mr. Isaacs to present himself in the wit-ness-box. (Applause in court, which was .'immediately suppressed.] • Sir Albert,-in committing the defendant for trial,' said he had the assurance that not only Mr., Isaacs, but all the persons mentioned in these alleged libels would le called at tho trial. Mr. Chesterton then asked for bail, niul the magistrate said ho would accept defendant's recognisances in ioOO.