ALLEGED CORRUPTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 277, 4 September 1936, Page 5

ALLEGED CORRUPTION

ATTACK ON MINISTERS. ROYAL COMMISSION LIKELY. PERTH, Sept. 3. Charges of corruption directed at certain members of tho Mestern Australian Ministry, by Mr E. Hughes, member of tho Legislative Asscmhly for East Perth, are likely to bo subject of an inquiry by a Royal Commission.

Mr Hughes, in speaking in the Assembly, alleged that shareholders of the Labour newspaper, the “Westralian Worker,” had been defrauded of a controlling ownership by an organisation led by the Premier (Mr J. C. Willcock), that £721 had been taken from union funds to defray the expenses of Mr Gray, honorary Minister, who was prosecuted for an election offence which was followed by a free pardon for Mr Gray, that bookmakers were promised immunity from prosecution if they contributed to the Government’s expenses at the last election, for which they contributed £350, and that the Goodwood Race Club, which was privately owned by a Victorian millionaire and run by a legislator, was never prosecuted, although committiing an offence against the criminal code. The Deputy-Premier (Mr M. F. Troy) said to-day that the Government intended to take all steps necessary to protect itself, the persons mainly concerned in Mr Hughes’s attack being the Premier (Mr Willcock), who is at present ill, the former Premier (Mr Philip Collier), and also the chairman of the Agricultural- Bank, who is a former Minister for Works, Mr A. McCallum. Mr Troy added that no decision about the measures to be taken would he made until Mr Willcock resumed duty.