SEVEN YEARS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1922, Page 5

SEVEN YEARS.

BOTTOMLEY S SENTENCE. “HEARTLESS FRAUDS.” NOTICE OF APPEAL. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, May 29. Bottomley -was convicted and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. Mr. Justice Salter, summing up, in the Bottomley case, advised the jury not to consider whether Bottomley was patriotic, whether he had done much for his country or in pursuit of private gain. If the jury was convinced he did dishonest things it should convict. There was no excuse for Bottomley to say he would make restitution. Referring to the evidence that counterfoil books were used in connection with the certificates issued, the Judge asked: “Where are the counterfoils?” This was not the case of an uneducated person who had a few pounds entrusted to him and got muddled, it was the case of an able and efficient business man who received important sums of money from people who trusted him, a man who appreciated, like any business man in London, the importance of correct accounts. Any honest account, however kept, would have rendered it impossible for Bottomley to appropriate great sums without immediate detection. The thing had come to light through the Bigland proceedings. The Judge said the charge of appropriating £57,000 drawn for the purpose of buying newspapers was the most important transaction embraced in the charges. At that time the Victory Club did not owe Bottomley money, yet when he did not succeed in borrowing £lOO,OOO from the bank in the club’s name he raised it through a solicitor by means of the bonds, and the money was used to buy newspapers. Crowds outside and inside Old Bailey awaited the conclusion of the Bottomley trial. Bottomley at the outset sat at the solicitors’ table. At the termination of the prosecutor’s speech he rose and said I will now go to the place where the accused person usually goes,” and entered the dock. Bottomley was unmoved by the verdict except that his face flushed. He commenced questioning -the Judge and when told that it w r as unusual to allow the prisoners in eases of misdemeanour to speak before they ■were sentenced, he retorted scornfully: “Had it been so I should have had something rather offensive to say about your summing up.” Subsequently Bottomley collapsed. The crowd were excited and astonished at the severity of the sentence. JUDGE’S SEVERE COMMENT. NOTICE OF APPEAL GIVEN. PROCEDURE IN THE COMMONS. Received May 30, 5.5 p.m. London, May 29. After the jury had returned its verdict in the Bottomley case the Judge said: “Bottomley, you have been rightly convicted of a long series of heartless frauds. These poor people trusted you and you robbed them of £150,000. The crime is aggravated by your high position, by the number and poverty of your victims, by the trust they reposed in you, by the magnitude of your frauds and the callous effrontry with which your frauds were committed.” Bottomley heard the sentence unmoved, but acclamations arose throughout the Court. When order was restored Bottomley asked whether he could consult his solicitors regarding immediate notice of appeal. The Judge: “Certainly.” The House of Commons will take no action against Bottomley until the appeal is heard. If it is unsuccessful the Government will submit a motion of expulsion. In a case of felony membership automatically lapses, but the House must consider the circumstances in a case of misdemeanour. —Aus.-N.Z.-Cable Assn.

SENTENCE APPROVED. LONDON PRESS VIEWS. Received May 30, 7.55 p.m. London, May 30. The London newspapers generally approve of the sentence imposed on Bottomley. The Daily News says it taxed the energies of the ablest lawyers and publicists to bring him to book, and the public owes a debt of gratitude to those who did not relax their determination to expose him. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

[The conviction and sentence to a long term of imprisonment of Horatio Bottomley, M.P., marks the downfall of a remarkable figure. He was the possessor of a direct, incisive style which has gained him equal success on the platform and in the Press. In the journalistic world he was most conspicuous as the editpr of the weekly London paper John Bull, which he started, and which attained a very large circulation. His leading articles in this paper were always of a slashing, powerful tone, and without agreeing with his views, they could be admired for their “fire” and the writer’s mastery with the pen. Special articles of an unusually powerful nature on topical problems were often featured in other London newspapers, one popular Sunday paper giving pride of place to Bottomley each week throughout the war period, when hie attacks on the powers that be were always clothed in vigorous language. Bottomley also founded the Financial Times, he was proprietor of the now defunct newspaper the Sun, and last year he started the Sunday Illustrated. He sat in the House of Commons for South Hackney from 1906 to 1912, and was re-elected in 1918. He is 62.]