On Monday, before the Select Committee on the Marconi agreement,Sir
Alexander King, Secretary to the Post Office, was recalled and was olosely questioned by Mr. Terrell. At length he exclaimed: "I object to being questioned as if I were a prisoner and not a witness giving evidence before the Com- mittee. It makes use very cross and annoyed indeed, and there is only one member of the Committee who has done it." We think that the chairman should not have allowed the impro- priety of this outburst to pass. It sometimes happens that a witness is not treated fairly by a member of a Committee, but in that case the witness should appeal through the chairman for the protection of the Committee, to which he is justly entitled. The iafornaal denunciation of a member is a most undesirable method of procedure, particularly when that member is only representing the interests of the nation in
taking the view that it is the duty of officials—the trustees for the nation—to make the best possible bargain for the taxpayers, and not a bargain which satisfies some ideal but necessarily arbitrary conception of what is " fair." It is very easy to be generous with other people's money. Besides, if we are to take Sir Alexander King's view that the Government ought not to press an advantage, surely a similar spirit ought to be shown by the other side. Yet it appears that when the Managing Director of the Marconi Company thought the Government were not yielding sufficiently he talked of selling his patents, &c., to Germany, on the principle that " Business is business !"
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