Faced with this situation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer began
by suggesting to the War Office that they should buy in another part of England. When they refused, and said in effect that they must have his estate, Lord St. Aldwyn did the only thing that he could do. He said that they must take his property compulsorily and in accordance with law. Accord- ingly two leading valuers were appointed, one to act for the War Office and one for Lord St. Aldwyn. In the end the price paid was that suggested by the War Office valuer. All that Lord St. Aldwyn did was to ask his valuer not to press for anything the War Office considered unfair. The entire facts as to all the purchases made on Salisbury Plain were laid before Parliament at the time, and the Opposition made no attempt to upset the bargain or even to protest against it. We say deliberately that this attempt to blacken the good name of Lord St. Aldwyn, Lord Selborne, and of the late Lord Salisbury in order to find excuses for the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Attorney-General, and Lord Murray is the most monstrously unjust, dishonourable, malignant, and discreditable of all the discreditable episodes in the whole squalid and disgraceful story of the Marconi scandals.
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