'An Intéreating bel action. has! been decided; in' England arising out of a ewspaper's) critlelsm of. a. lavish party given by.a'wealthy woman who entertained some 800" guests at a: cost Of just under. 1,000. The paper after publishing an article in which: said wha anet ep other, tut there are rich people, use they wealth
ome' who try" to. daaale. the world Wwith there wu extravagance... They Hhouid Ssemember that hey" merely was sued for libel. Tt transpired in, the evidence that the hostess had invited some press "representatives to attend and that reports and pictures had appeared in certain newspapers, and had in fact by her own action transformed what might have been 'a private party into a matter of public Importance, There was no evidence to show that the defendant paper was, actuated by malice or bad faith making the comment it did and the Judge decided to withdraw the action from the jury. Tu coming to that decision the judge found that to his mind the article constituted a very cruel attack on the plaintiff and he id not see that by having the party she did anything whatever which reasonable person would contend wrong._ It is dificult not to agree with the judge's remarks, If the! expenditure of no more than £28 head on one's guests amounts to extravaganee then a very large number of people in the world are guilty of that sin and a great deal of the business of entertaining would speedily disappear and with it the circulation of that money which goes 50 much towards making for prosority.
'On the other hand the judge decision shows the manner in which' the Press can be protected in such actions as these. Had the plainti kept her party strictly private she might "have been on. better legal ground, but the extension of her: Hospltallty to certain Press representatives transformed a private festivity" into a public matter which the Press could properly.comment. It seems a. Little hard on hostesses and also on Press representallves, for, if the latter are not invited so frequently to parties in the future as they have been In the past, they will only have the state of the law to blame for it. desire not to harm the city un-Recessarily, there Is plenty of evidence in the latest reports that very considerable damage has already been done and that more is to. follow before: the Government' forces are driven out of the capital. It 1s very much a case of whatever: the Notionalists "proposing being "set at naught "by" the government forces, Milltarily the defence of the capital has been impossible for some days, and in other types of warfare. it would in all probably have been a ready surrendered," The hideous ferocity of this struggle 1s apparently being Intensitied as it nears its crile mination. The orders issued by the Government Militia indicate an inten lon to resist the entry of the insurgents street by street and house bby house s0 that it is by no means altticult to. picture. the ruin and destruction that must ensue before the city Is completely captured. What even more tragic is the large number of lives which must inevit= ably be lost. in" such "a bootless stiueale, The mobilization of every citizen for street. Aghting opens "up tragic' possibllitie? asthe oncoming on either hand and their lot'ts indeed 'Some, old) theories.' have been' subjected to Ing and, Intensive.sleges: but "have defied capture' with only. "°mainimum of defensive: power... Photographs the destruction done in some cities, Toledo, for example,- illustrate. the use of artillery but yet the Alcazar, bombed, shelled, mined and burnt, held "out until "relieved with" few: losses. Other phases of the campaign have revealed on both sides amazing resiliency" against attack and ability to take unusual punishment without materially altering. the situation. Although both sides are using modern weapons, and the Insurgents concentrating on aerial attack, the stubbornness of resistance is probably due to the relatively small force of the insurgents. which makes large-scale operations impossible and' has result-an 0 series of tuated ations with street fighting playing as large a part as direct frontal attack. Madrid offers a case in point. Tt was assum. ed that when a government took to fight leaving the populace to look after its own needs before -communications were definitely severed by the enemy the city was lost, This has not proved so in regard to Madrid, which Is likely to hold out some time before capitulation.! Undoubtedly, arrangements have been made provision the epulation who mostly belong tothe lilian militia; and the numerical inferiority of the attackers is an additional factor in favour of the defenders of the city, Artillery and alr bombardment must play an important part in undermining the morale of the people but if other phases of the campaign are to be accepted as a guide this last phase might end one of the most vicious street fight ing. campaigns: ever. known and' a beautiful and historic city reduced to ruins.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.