A Scandalous Libel Irresponsible scandalmongers should be chastened as a
result of the libel action brought by Lady Louis Mountbatten against the People, which made thinly- veiled insinuations against her character. Lady Louis courageously took proceedings and went into the witness- box to repudiate the offensive allegations that had been made. It will be remembered that the King at the outset of his reign took a similar action to dissipate rumours, as absurd as they were unpleasant, about his private life. Now as then, the scandalmongers were discomfited when brought into court. The defendants made a complete and unreserved apology to Lady Louis Mountbatten and admitted that there was no truth what- ever in the statements which their journal had published. The public will wonder, with the Lord Chief Justice, whether the conductors of the journal realized that a libel can give rise to criminal as well as civil proceedings.
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