Mr. Austen Chamberlain, speaking on Wednesday at Bir- mingham, dealt
with a point noticed by us elsewhere—namely, the similarity between the Marconi scandal and the story of the Government's plan for coercing Ulster :— "The Prime Minister taunted Mr. Boner Law with wishing for a fishing inquiry like the Marconi inquiry. Had the Marconi inquiry no lessons for the Prime Minister himself? He did not know at the time what his colleagues were doing. He did not know what one of them had done until it had become public property. It had all been concealed from him, and the Ministers chiefly concerned had uttered denials in the House of Commons which were held by every man, by their own Press as well as by Unionists, to cover the very charge which when the Marconi Com- mittee had finished their investigations was shown by their own avowal to be true. We want another Committee that can bear evidence, that can get at the truth. We are not satisfied merely with debate in the House of Commons, in which Ministers say what they please, give what account they please of what other people say, and conceal what they please under I know not what subterfuges, satisfactory to them but not satisfactory to honest, plain-speaking men."
Mr. Chamberlain also alluded to the action of the Lord Chancellor, who did not hesitate to alter official reports of the House of Lords proceedings so as to make it appear that he had not said that which he did say, and con- cluded with another demand for some tribunal independent of party before which the true facts could be brought out.
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