In reply to a question asked by Major Archer-Shee in
the House on Wednesday, Mr. Asquith said that at the end of last July or early in August the Master of Elibank informed him that he and the Attorney-General and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had bought shares in the American Marconi Company. The Attorney-General subsequently repeated the statement in August, adding that he had sold some of the shares but retained the bulk. Both he and the Master of Eiibank assured Mr. Asquith that the purchase was made after the publication of the contract between the Post Office and the Marconi Company, and that the American Company had no interest, direct or indirect, in the contract. This was the whole extent of Mr. Asqnith's information at the time of the debate in October. In answer to further questions the Premier said he had never received any information to the effect that these or any other Ministers had dealt in the shares of any other affiliated companies. Mr. Joyneon Hicks having asked whether he did not think it desirable that these facts should have been communicated to the House when the debate took place, Mr. Asquith replied, "I confess, in view of the fact that they seemed to have no relevance whatever to the scandalous charges then being circulated, I attached little or no import- ance to them."
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