In his speech at the annual demonstration of the Primrose
League at the Albert Hall on Friday week Lord Curzon referred to the Marconi affair. The prudence and candour, as well as the honour, of public men were a precious possession of the nation. It was only because the reputation of Ministers was regarded as a joint asset of both political parties that we had been able to build up the standard of public conduct which was a model for the world. If " ordinary circumspection " had been shown by the Ministers who had permitted themselves an investment in American Marconi shares, if the House of Commons had been "treated with candour and sincerity" last October, then we should have been spared the scandal of the long and infructuous pro- ceedings of the Marconi Committee. Lord Curzon hoped that the House of Commons would re-establish by resolution, in language which no one could misinterpret, the most rigid and scrupulous standard of conduct. We earnestly hope that such a resolution will be the outcome of the Marconi inquiry. If the Government use their party majority to declare in effect that the Ministers who speculated did nothing indis- creet, indelicate, or unbecoming, they will have done a most grievous injury to our public life. They will have done i with their eyes open, and posterity will know how to judge them.
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