The Case of Mr. Boothby
The findings of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the actions of Mr. Robert Boothby, Member of Parliament for East Aberdeenshire and till last Tuesday Parlia- mentary Secretary of the Minister of Food, make painful reading The committee, which was appointed on the motion of the Prime Minister to enquire into the conduct of Mr. Boothby in connexion with the realisation of Czech assets in Britain, "has found that Mr. Boothby's conduct was Contrail to the usage and derogatory to the dignity of the House, and inconsistent with the standards which Parliament is entitled to expect from its members." The gravamen of the charge is that Mr. Boothby, as chairman of an informal committee which was pressing for the realisation and distribution of Czech assets in this country, was pressing the committee's claims in public speeches and communications with Government departments without disclosing at any time that he had been promised a sum of L24,000 by One of the Czech claimants who would be a beneficiary if the committee's endeavours were successful Mr. Boothby, in his letter to the Prime Minister resigning his position as Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Food, stated that his decision "is not dictated by the findings of the Select Committee." Mr. Churchill, with a surer sense of the equirements of the occasion, replied tersely that "no other ourse was possible in view of the report of the Select Corn- ttee." Mr. Boothby has still to make his defence before the ouse of Commons, which is not likely to withhold its con- dence from the committee of its own members who have xplored this regrettable case so exhaustively.
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