*. * Sir Alfred Mond said :- "I deliberately charge
the Labour Government with not telling the truth. Will Mr. MacDonald deny that the Home Secretary brought five gentlemen, inoluding the Attorney-General, over to see him at 10 Downing Street or anywhere else ? There was a great row, and the question was asked, How dare you prosecute somebody for expressing views which you hold ? ' The Attorney- General, not a moment too soon, said he would bear all the blame."
Lord Birkenhead said : "I am in possession of confidential information, and I say with knowledge that there was an exercise of influence in which the Home Office was not unconcerned which ought to be exposed by an inquiry." If any such instruction as Sir Douglas Hogg has referred to really exists the Government's defence of themselves, by the truth and sincerity of which they decided to stand or fall, wholly collapses. It is not to be wondered at that the public mind is full of suspicion. "Why," it is asked, "should the Govern- ment have refused an inquiry though one of the first articles of their creed has always been that publicity is the cure for nearly all national ills? There must have been a motive for their refusal."
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