What is the test for an inference or comment?

I do not think anyone reading the article would fail to appreciate the degree to which the it was comment on the facts presented. In this regard the comments of Mr. Justice Brostowe in Crawford v. Albu, [1917] S.A.A.D. 102 at 105 are pertinent: "An inference or comment may take the form of a statement of fact. The question is not whether the words which the defendant used stated a fact or not, but whether, reading them in the environment, the impression conveyed to the audience was that the defendant was merely making a bald statement . . . or that was an inference which the speaker though should be drawn from certain facts which he mentioned or referred to. If the former is the true view, then, no doubt, in the absence of justification, the plaintiff must succeed. If the latter, then, assuming that the facts on which the inference is based are true, and the inference itself is just and fair, he must fail."