THE MARCONI COMPANY—A DISCLAIMER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."'
Srn,—In a leading article in your issue of September 14th, which reaches me here, I find the following sentence :- " Sir Henry Norman pointed out in the House of Commons that an enormous rise in Marconi shares had occurred through the publication by the Marconi Company of their version of their proposed contract with the Government."
There is no ground whatever for attributing such a statement to me. I have not at any time, in the House of Commons or
elsewhere, publicly or privately, expressed any opinion touching in any way upon the shares of the Marconi Company.—I am,
Sir, &c., HENRY NORMAN.
Chateau de la Garoupe, Antibes, France.
[We regret that we should have attributed to Sir Henry Norman a statement that be did not make. What we should have said was that Sir Henry Norman was the cause of its being made clear in the House of Commons that an enormous rise in Marconi shares had occurred through the publication by the Marconi Company of their version of their proposed contract with the Government. On July 16th Sir Henry Norman put a question to the Postmaster-General, who answered that the Marconi Company's tender had been accepted on March 7th, though the contract had not yet been signed. Sir Henry Norman then further inquired —our facts are taken from the National Review for September, p. 31—how details could be given in a circular issued by the Marconi Company so long ago as March 9th, and also in a speech made by Mr. Marconi himself in July P The rise in the Marconi shares, of course, was the result of the publication by the Conpany.cif their version of their contract. We may add that we did not and do not wish to lay any stress on the Stock Exchange side of the Marconi proposal. We feel sure that the gossip about members of the Government in this respect is quite untrue, though we are also sure that Ministers will do well to show that they have everything to gain by courting inquiry: The purpose of our article was to prove that there was good reason for demanding an inquiry into the virtual monopoly granted to the Marconi Company for a long period.—En. Spectator.]
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