DLA165-0003  Transcription

‘Laszlo and the Liars: The Traitor Painter and a Public Enquiry’, John Bull, 7 June 1919, p. 6

[Page 6 of original publication]

PHILIP ALEXIUS Laszlo de Lombos—in other words Laszlo, the Society portrait painter—has many friends still. And in spite of all that has happened, in spite of the fact that having taken the oath of allegiance to the King at an opportune moment, on the outbreak of war, he was afterwards sent to prison, this man is now sent to us as the unhappy victim of jealous rivals, the inoffensive martyr over whom noble lords in the House of Peers should be ready to shed the silent tear of pity. We welcome this display of misplaced sympathy—it clears the air, and brings to a head one of the most amazing cases of enemy perfidy revealed during the war. We have had no hesitation in fitting the right term to Laszlo, because he has been treated as a traitor and because he was discovered in correspondence with the enemy.

THOSE FOUR SPONSORS.

If he was not a traitor why was he interned? If he was a loyal subject of the King, faithful to the oath he took when in August, 1914, he sought nationalisation, why according to the latest official statement is he now in a nursing home "under strict conditions and supervision"? Someone is lying. Who are the liars? Is it the Home Office or the War Office who in the interests of the State laid the Society darling by the heels—or is it Laszlo who pretends his innocence, and those misguided noble lords who even now are prepared to stand for the loyalty of a man found to be dangerous to the State? For months we have asked for some explanation or apology from those persons – “four natural-born British subjects” – who, when Laszlo made his application to the Home Office for nationalisation on July 28th, 1914 – seven days before war was declared – supported it by formal declaration as to his responsibility and loyalty. These four persons were Mr. Balfour, the present Secretary for Foreign Affairs;^[1] Lord Lee of Fareham, then Sir A. Lee, M.P., and later a member of the Government;^[2] Lord Devonport, who afterwards became Food Controller,^[3] and Howard Guinness,^[4] related by marriage to Laszlo, his wife being an English lady.^[5] So you see that three men who are or have been Ministers of the Crown guaranteed the loyalty of this enemy alien who later, when we were in the throes of war, it was found necessary to lay by the heels and put in Brixton Prison.

LORD DEVONPORT SPEAKS OUT.

But at last one of the sponsors has had the courage to speak. Mr. Balfour has never opened his mouth; Lord Lee has been as dumb as a deaf mute. Under provocation, Lord Devonport has now spoken, and the provocation came in this way: the other day, in the House of Lords, Lord Wittenham, who, as Mr. Faber M.P. for Clapham has been a terror to the Hun in our midst, did his duty as a patriotic Englishman.^[6] He dared to be curious about the fate of Laszlo. Many strange rumours have been floating around, including one that this creature, who proved false to his newly-sworn oath, was to be allowed to remain in this country. Lord Wittenham wanted to know what JOHN BULL has repeatedly asked: why Laszlo, being a British subject, when he committed certain offences against the safety of the realm, was not tried for high treason instead of being interned; and incidentally, he wanted to know whether Laszlo, a hereditary noble by grace of the Austrian emperor and a member of our own Victorian order, had yet been denaturalised. Needless to add, the Government had little or no information to impart—the Home Office is always touchy on the question of enemy aliens and naturalised traitors. But Viscount Devonport, one of the Laszlo sponsors, actually at last opened his mouth and told us something. And this is his statement: that Laszlo has applied to the home office for a public hearing, “in order that he might have an opportunity of answering publicly charges which are made against him.” We sincerely trust that public hearing will be granted and that not only will the four persons who guaranteed the respectability and loyalty of Laszlo be called to give evidence, but that the Military Intelligence Department of the War Office will make known to the public the information on which they sought to induce the Home Office to act long before the society painter was arrested and interned. We shall then learn what truth there is in the story that Laszlo communicated with a blacksmith brother in the enemy country through the medium of a neutral diplomat, the nature of the information conveyed to the enemy and the reasons for the internment in Brixton Gaol of this Society favourite.

A WANTON CHARGE.

If we are to believe Lord Weardale,^[7] who, although not one of the traitor's sponsors, is still prepared to go bail for Laszlo, nothing had happened—the suspicions of the military and the police, the evidence of the intercepted letters, the strong step of interning a naturalised nobleman—all count for nothing, and, what is more, Laszlo has been the victim of a cruel and criminal conspiracy on the part of "a certain section of the artistic world." " There are artists," Lord Weardale tells us, "who are not particularly pleased to see the pictures of a foreign artist sold at much higher prices than their own," and he dares to declare that "artistic jealousy has in a great degree prompted this virulence of sentiment with regard to Mr. Laszlo." A baser or more wanton charge was never made. JOHN BULL has been foremost in denouncing this Laszlo business, yet it has never at any time been approached by a single artist nor has it heard a word of any such conspiracy as Lord Weardale suggests. To charge British artists with a criminal conspiracy actuated by trade jealousy, and to imply that the authorities were induced to imprison this disloyal person without real evidence, is to make a charge which should not be allowed to go unrefuted. Let Laszlo have a public Inquiry. It will throw a good deal of light on the methods of the enemy alien, and do much to stimulate the national demand for a more effectual supervision of the foe in our midst and a closer hold upon the inestimable boon of naturalisation.

StdeL

19/07/2023