VON ZEDLITZ CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1920, Page 5

VON ZEDLITZ CASE.

ACTION AGAINST 2TOWBEU»Sj PLAINTIFF IN THE BOX. -j' The jury in the von ZedMfcVi found that the matter published bp New Zealand Times was libelimta j awarded damages to the uuunft £llOO, The court granted as for a one-day Tiearing. , 15 ,rf* On the first day of the Wring! plaintiff, Professor George vo». ZM] entered the witness-box. He"® that he resided at present at'lS Hutt, and earned his living Tjy.B ing pupils. During the war Mfc' tome manual labor in order m)M himself. He was born in 1871 fa flit Germany. Ep g father was fijrftfij ron Zedlitz, an ex-officer of thaTS sian Army, and the eldest son Id Silesian squire. Witness's motile* i bom at Stamford Hill, England!*!; < >vas the daughter of Ernest WaHE merchant of Dutch extraction ralUu Leeds. Witness believed forbears had resided in England ford turies. He saw his father dffiw. was then four years of' age. Wtau was five, the marriage of Tifi"«jjaj terminated. Witness lived ■ was brought up entirely by his vM From the age of six to the eight he attended school at KwS Germany. When he was flightT mother went to Great Britain, and 1 m Guernsey, in Yorkshire, antf at &i bourne for three or four years, neas attended British colleges' d& that time. His mother tfeen we# M live in Italy and the South of |3h whore she remained practically nifl the time of her death in 18W. ' rail witness was 11 he was sent to Mm In Saxony, Germany. He stayed tMI nearly a year. At . the age of Mm] went to Wellington College, In Sag shire, and remained there three ymSl At 18 he went as a scholarship ntafj to Oxford, and graduated there fn 13)1 He then earned his living as milmm muster in schools, and bv oHvatil tuition From 1895 till the whieh he left for New Zealand, burgh" mftSter at Loretto School, Counsel: Have you observed tlw jtfbll* gations which the hospitality of.the country might have imposed o< yoflt during the war?— Witness (amQiiur)i Pedantically! 1 «w«iwr Cross-examined by Sir John Find fey. witness said he was aware that bis ittiM had been very prominent In the news* papers m connection with his pro falser* ship. , He had been told, tfaongb hfl[ Aid not know, that the Alien Stohm# Teachers Aet was direoted

; A GERMAN SUBJECT. , ' « You are to-day a German subject W the eyes of our law?— Yes. But y«S cannot make me so In the eyes of thit German law. '

Why did not you naturalise r—l dlil not naturalise because I aih * jfetaj raturiilly tempted to take an intensif in politics, and I ant not sure that it toil right for a man in my position to enter j political life in New Zealand; and lttil any ease, I feel my duty lay to thtfi discharge of tho work for which I 6»ds been brought out at the expense of tW J people. I value my non-naturalisation mainly as a barrier against my owi>| ambition and inclination to enter noli' 1 tical life. '4 Is that the only reason?—l could not i fay that it is the only reason. I think; 3 that in the back of my mind there wj probably a reason of snobbery, if I mvi l ciUl it so. . . . I am trying to wh*t you know is not to ctoffat 1 m' the order of their importance thd" tpasona that operate in one's mind (pi 1 aij act. I mean this—that in German* S the family of which I bear the name fa ' well known, and that so long as I could 5 conceive of myself or describe myself'' as a German I could describe myself (is belonging to a more or less distitt* finished family, and in England or aa an Englishman, I was nothjpg at aU, I don't think it weighed with me muoh,.' but I dare say there was something ol '' the kind."

At the tack of your mind yon wer# proud of belonging to a German family? ■—Witness (smiling): That is probablli the shameful truth. I put it to you that on" becoming naturalised you come under obligation* of allegiance to the country la whidi you naturalise?— Well, I took thoM upon mo by taking tho oath of legiance when I served as a volunteer on two occasions in "Wellington." views Upon the war, I take it that as Professor of Gar* man in the University, you kept miirself as familiar as most of us with th» international relations of the Burope&n nations?—l don't know how I can answer that unless in this way;' that my feelings and views were always those of other New Zealanders. Were you not aware on the first ontbreak of war that Britain must corns ' In?— No. / , ■ Do you tell us you did not feel that Britain must come to th© ftssistfttico 61 France?— But, Sir John, a man looks at things from his own point of view. The most awful thing that could happen to . me was the outbreak of war between Britain and Germany, and for three of four days I went about swearing to myself 'this is not going to happen.' I went about saying, 'The Germans, will never be snob fools as to give Britain a chance of coming in. They Will yield everything first,'

Did you feel when war first broke out between Germany and Russia that you should leave New Zealand and go to Germany?— Yes. It took me a few d*ys to make up my mind that that wu not my duty.

"A MENTAL STRUGGLE." Did you not write that in the'ilrst days of war you underwent a mental struggle as to the exact course of your duty, and that before Britain came in you thought it might be your duty to go back to Germany?— Yes, that is so. Thus, for a short period when (for* many was at war with France and Sussia you were uncertain whether to go to Germany or not?—l will oven go further, and say that for a snort time I thought I must go. When Germany was at war with France and Russia, do you suggest you did net know that Great Britain must come into that conflict?— Yes. lam perfect ly clear that I lived in that fool's paradi™ for a short time. Do yon not agree that the behaviour of the Herman nation through the m was such that no person should be specially proud of being a German no matter how high the rank of his fiftnily? I think I can agree with vou in that. *

ou have heard o? an allegation that during the war signalling too* pttca from a honfo in Lower Hutt, and that the house was yours?— Yes. And you know that the' matter cot ' the umpapm ?—I 1« not know ■