BIG LIBEL SUIT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 184, 1 May 1940, Page 9

BIG LIBEL SUIT

British Union Leaders v. Communists NEWSPAPER ARTICLE By Telegraph —Press Assu.—Copyright. LONDON, April 29. A big Labour libel action arising out of the war has opened in the Law Courts. Sir Walter Citrine and six members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress sued E. R. Pountney, proprietor of the “Daily Worker,” for damages. Sir William Jowett, for the plaintiffs, said that the libel referred to the visit by the plaintiffs to France in December to initiate the move for an Anglo-French Trades Union Council. The “Daily Worker” was tlie official organ of the British Communist Party, which is affiliated to the Communist International in Moscow. Sir 'William Jowett read articles from the “Daily Worker” containing the following passages: “The real purpose of the Paris meeting is to bring a million trade unionists behind the war machine of British and French Imperialism,” and “Martial law in factories, a 60-liour week, compulsory deductions from wages, and the abolition of shop stewards are some of the benefits Anglo-French unity may bring from across the Channel." Sir Walter Citrine gave evidence that the statements in the “Daily Worker" were misleading and untrue. The Labour movement, he said, had repeatedly declared that money for the publication of the “Daily Worker” came from Moscow.