Peers Differ.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1922, Page 1

Peers Differ.

A STRONG PROTEST

UNITED SERVICE TKI.KOUAMH. (Received this day at 9.00 a.in.) LONDON, June 28. The story of how a l’oer visited the home of'Lady Bathurst, proprietress of the “Morning Post” and demanded an apology for newspaper criticism, was told in the House of Lords, when Lord Bathurst accused Lord Midleton of calling at the lady’s home. Trembling with hysterical excitement, and demanding an instant apology, he declared the peer told the lady, that if it happened in former days, he would have shot Lord Bathurst. U,r,l Midleton, who was in the Lords, interjected—What I said was that if circumstances were those of a century, ago I would have called out the noble lord and attempted to shoot him. The incident arose when Lord Midleton called the attention of the House to a paragraph by the “Post’s” Dublin correspondent relating to the murder of Field Marshal Wilson. This paragraph rend—“ The vast bulk South cm Irishmen from the Midleton antipartitionists to the Rory O’Connor Republicans arc going about their business ns if the Empire’s greatest soldier had been a blind beggar, run over by a cab. The foul deed gives a monumental satisfaction indeed for the whole fact is steeped in the infamous doctrine that killing is no murder, when the victim is an Orangeman or a Loyalist.”

Lord Midleton described tho statement as a cnlumnous malicious libel and said he would not have mentioned the matter but that lie had failed to secure a withdrawal or an apology from Lady Bathurst.

The liOrd Chancellor said the case was astonishing, and constituted a most gross outrage. He recommended Lord Midleton to take advice whether ho had no remedy. Ho added that Lord Bathurst’s attitude should be one of sackcloth and ashes for such a vile insult. Lord Bathurst explained enquiries were being made in Dublin, regarding the subject.