JUDGMENTBY: WINSLOW J

In the normal way I would have written a considerably longer judgment than the one I am now about to deliver. The various aspects both factual and legal which were presented to me in the course of a protracted trial, which commenced on 24th June 1968 and came to an end on 17th July this year do not, on further reflection, necessitate such a course because the essential issues of fact, despite detailed and exhaustive presentation and pursuit over 25 working days, are relatively simple and the law relating thereto reasonably clear.

The plaintiff is a member of the Bar who is now of about 8 years standing. His complaint is that the words hereinafter set out were uttered to his friends and his clients in terms calculated to disparage him in his office and he also contends that not only did these words lower him in the esteem of mankind generally but also tended to injure him in his profession.

Both the plaintiff and the defendant had been friends from about 1962 until 1964 when the plaintiff prevailed upon the defendant to let him have the tenancy of the front portion of the first floor of the premises known as 61A Chulia Street, of which the defendants wife