On the general question we maintain our attitude that the
members of the Government concerned, though of course in no sense guilty of corruption or of anything approaching thereto, did not show that delicacy and discretion which the circumstances demanded. The Government were making a bargain with a company controlled and directed by the brother of one of the most prominent members of the Ministry and its chief law officer, and the bargain was thus one which was specially likely to encourage speculation on the Stock Exchange. Yet no precautions seem to have been taken to avoid an atmosphere of suspicion being created, and, incredible as it sounds, the Attorney-General, by this time a member of the Cabinet responsible for the contract, actually sent to his brother, the chairman of the Marconi Company, a congratulatory telegram—an act not, of course, culpable per se, but surely one not marked by delicacy and discretion; certainly not an act likely to discourage Stock Exchange gambling or to prevent the creation of an atmosphere of suspicion.
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