THE FISHING-BOAT INCIDENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 5

THE FISHING-BOAT INCIDENT

LONDON, August 31. Explaining the sinking of the two Swedish fishing-boats, Berlin radio declared: "German naval forces on August 25 intercepted fishing-boats in the Skagerack, which is prohibited for fishing. The naval vessels warned off the fishing-boats, but the Germans again met them in the middle of the prohibited area in the evening and fired on and sank two. German naval units have been ordered to deal in a similar manner with such vessels in the future." .

SYDNEY, August 19.

O.C. SYDNEY, August 19. Writing defamatory letters is an obsession ■ with William Blanchard, 67----year-old Brisbane printer. He has been writing them for years, but .his last was written about the Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Wilson, and this week Mr. Justice Philp told him in the Brisbane Criminal Court that he must stop it. He was required to enter into a bond of £100 to be of good behaviour. Charged with having libelled the Governor, Blanchard was alleged to have stated in a letter written on May 26 that Sir Leslie Wilson was a blackmailer and would sink hospital ships.

A cue to- Blanchard's obsession was given by the Crown Prosecutor (Mr. J. J. Sheehy), who said that when Blanchard was the second reader in the Government Printing Office, a mistake had occurred in the of school books. Blanchard. had written several .letters to the Government Printer and the office overseer. An inquiry revealed that no responsibility for the mistake could be attached to any particular employee, and the incident was closed. However, Blanchard had started writing letters to his superiors and had been reduced to a compositor. He had then written to Cabinet Ministers, Judges, the Public Service Commissioner, and other officers, including the Governor. In 1932 he was given a position in the Income Tax Office, but continued writing letters and was dismissed in 1940.

Mr. Justice Philp: Blanchard, you have apparently got an obsession, which forces a scurrilous pen into ydur hand. You must stop it. Mr. N. F. MacGroarty (for Blanchard) said that Blanchard wanted to know why he had been sacked, and had never got to the bottom of the trouble.