To require Colonel Spurner to act as he did—if this
is what happened—was grossly unfair to him. When Ministers become careless about the nature, or even about the appearance of their transactions, they open the gates to corruption. If they do not quickly realize the danger and become more careful, corruption will inevitably follow. A lower standard of public life is tacitly accepted. It seems to us deplorable that Mr. Boner Law should have defended the transaction, and that a director of a well-known firm should write as though those who are deeply concerned for our public life were really inspired by the most vulgar motives of personal abuse. The House of Commons made a fatal mistake when it refused to reprobate the equivoca- tions of Ministers in the Marconi affair. Now it is extremely difficult to get people to understand what we mean when we talk of such things as delicacy and the law of Caesar's wife.
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