25 MAY 1912, Page 3

On Monday an action for libel by Mr. Winston Churchill

against Blackwood's Magazine was heard in the King's Bench Division. The libel was contained in a poem satirizing mem- bers of the Government under transparent disguises. It was winded that when Mr. Churchill escaped from the Boer prison in Pretoria he broke his parole. An apology was pub- lished in Blackwood's Magazine, but Mr. Churchill, naturally and rightly, wished to have a wider contradiction of a tiresome falsehood, and therefore brought this action. A charge of breaking parole is a charge of personal dishonour, and no Cabinet Minister ought to allow such a statement to pass. Mr. Churchill made no claim for damages. He is to be com- plimented on serving the interests of public life while vindi- cating his own honour.