Foreign News: Pantomimic Scandal

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British law intervened last week to prevent the King-Emperor from reading an account of the affairs of his best known subject. Of the subject Mme. Sarah Bernhardt once said: "He is the greatest of all pantomimics." Yet Parliament recently passed a law (TIME, Dec. 20) forbidding the publication of sensational divorce details. Therefore though George V., R. I., may have read the London papers never so carefully last week, he read only half a dozen sentences about the cause célèbre precipitated last week by an 18-year-old girl who was studying to be a typist before she married Charles Spencer Chaplin, born at London in 1889, still a Briton.

Typical British Account. "The famous cinema comedian, Charles Chaplin, became the defendant in an action for divorce begun yesterday at Los Angeles, the centre of his motion picture activities in the States. Counsel for Mrs. Chaplin secured an injunction restraining him from disposing of his funds or property in California which are said to have a value of £3,000.000.

"The allegations filed by Mrs. Chaplin covered 42 pages of legal foolscap, and were at once printed and hawked about the city of Los Angeles at a shilling a copy."

To these meagre details the Daily Mail added a sarcastic comment that it would not risk printing a picture of Comedian Chaplin, lest this constitute a legal breach.

Suppression. British editors were obliged to throw into their wastebaskets thousands of words cabled from the U. S. Allegations kept out of the British press:

MRS. CHAPLIN'S

That she was "a virtuous and innocent girl about two months past the age of 16 years" when he "seduced her under promise of marriage."

That "upon discovery by the defendant of the condition of the plaintiff, the defendant delayed the marriage for a long time in an effort to induce the plaintiff to prevent the birth of said child by submitting herself to a criminal operation, and so conducted himself that the plaintiff's physical condition became publicly and generally known at the time of their marriage."

That Mr. Chaplin said to men friends in speaking of his marriage: "Well, boys, this is better than going to the penitentiary, but it won't last long."

That he boasted of his affairs with "five movie actresses," threatened Mrs. Chaplin with a revolver, and "always detested" their two children.

MR. CHAPLIN'S

That, two years ago, "Lita was a big, well-developed girl and I never thought she was only 16 years old. ... I thought she loved me. I certainly loved her. I wanted six children—if I could have any— and she said she did, too. ... I had dreams of children. I wanted them, longed for them, hoped for them, but because of my experiences with my first wife, Mildred Harris, I thought I was incapable of fatherhood.

"Lita's mother often suggested to me that I marry Lita and I said I would love to if only we could have children. Mrs. Grey deliberately and continuously put Lita in my path.

"Mother and daughter would come to my house and the mother would go and leave Lita and me alone. She even insisted that Lita and I occupy the same berth on our trip to Mexico" [after which they were married].