Lord Robert Cecil, in a speech reported in last Saturday's
newspapers, dealt with the Marconi question. After describing the dealings of Ministers in American Marconi shares, he once more declared that he had never said, that he had not stated in his report, and that he did not say now, that the action by Ministers was a corrupt transaction, or that the Attorney- General and the Chancellor of the Exchequer were bribed.
"But I do say that it was a very improper transaction. For a high Government official to take what was equivalent to money from a Government contractor while a contract was actually in negotiation was a very improper proceeding indeed." Lord Robert went on to say that he did not believe that any Unionist member had the slightest wish to drive the Attorney-General and the Chancellor of the Exchequer from public life, but they did say that it was the duty of the House of Commons to lay down clearly a standard of purity of public life and to say that transactions of that kind were improper.
"If the result was that Ministers felt bound to resign their offices, that would not have been an unduly heavy punishment for the offence they had committed. The result of the refusal of the majority of the House of Commons to pass such a resolution was seen in Mr. Lloyd George's speech at the National Liberal Club. That luncheon and that speech absolutely destroyed the whole value and merit of his speech in the House of Commons and more than justified the Unionist Party in saying that a perfunctory expression of regret was not sufficient, that there must be a recorded decision of the House of Commons that those transactions were not proper in Ministers of the Crown."
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