As Mr. Lloyd George was driving home with his wife
and daughter a heavy leather dispatch box was thrown through the open window of the motor car, narrowly missing the ladies and striking the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the face near the eye. The assailant, a young man named McDougall, who escaped at the time, but was identified by the con- tents of the box and arrested on the following day, was charged at Bow Street on Monday. In a statement made to the police he said that he had acted in protest on his own initiative, intending to break the window of the car. If he had hurt any one he was sorry, but he was prepared to take the conse- quences of his action. Mr. Lloyd George, who has happily escaped serious injury, described the incident, observing that he did not press for any severe sentence after the defendant's statement. In the end McDougall was sentenced to two months' imprisonment with hard labour for an act which, even if it was unpremeditated, was none the less cowardly and abominable. His avowed intention was to break the window, and had he carried it out the mischief might have been con- siderably greater.
Previous page
