Neville Laski, K.C., former president of the Jewish Board of Deputies, was today awarded £525 damages with costs in a libel suit brought by him against the periodical “Truth” and Henry Newnham a writer for the magazine. Laski charged that Newnham had imputed that he was a coward and had evaded service in the last war, in an article published in “Truth” last August.
The plaintiff’s counsel pointed out that Laski had served with the British forces in the last war in Gallipoli Sinai and France, until invalided out in 1917, after suffering from shell shock. His brother, Harold Laski, British Labor Party leader, against whom Newnham’s article was similarly directed, was rejected for military service by a medical board, Laski’s counsel explained.
In awarding damages to Neville Laski, Justice Hawke, who presided at the trial, said the case had a “wicked aspect.” Speaking of the obsession against Jews, which was charged to Newnham, Justice Hawke said, “I do not know whether it is a good thing that such a man with obsessions of this kind should be in the journalistic profession.” Speaking of Laski, the Justice commented that, “he had made an honorable position for himself.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
