CORRUPTION CHARGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 194, 18 August 1933, Page 12

CORRUPTION CHARGE.

POLITICIAN EXPLAINS.

"NOT IN A PERSONAL SENSE." (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 11. Not long since Mr. Gregory, one of West Australia's members iu the Federal Parliament, in a public attack upon the fiscal policy of the Federal Government declared that Australian Customs officers are "corrupt," and that the tariff system is "corruptly" administered. The statement was made with such emphasis that most people thought that Mr. Gregory must have some specific evidence in hand to substantiate his charge. A good deal of agitation and controversy was around and eventually the Prime Minister thought it his duty to clear the air by writing to Mr. Gregory to ask for further information. ■There is no doubt that the free traders were confident that some serious exposure was imminent, while the protectionists insisted that the matter ought to be publicly ventilated at once. To the general surprise Mr. Gregory's answer to Mr. Lyons was in effect a complete retractation of his indictment. He had used the term "corrupt," he said, "in a political' and not in a personal or individual sense," and he went on to ask "whether or not it is politically dishonest or corrupt to impose over a long series of years without Parliamentary approval, tariff imposts which benefited a small but influential soction of the people," and so on. Anybody familiar with the fiscal controversy ought by this time to be aware that many free traders invariably assume not only intellectual but also moral superiority over their opponents, and regard any form of fiscal policy as. "corrupt,"- which savours even remotely of the "heresy" that they so heartily detest. But it is rather hard that "corruption" should be imputed in this wholesale manner to a large body of honest and capable public servants who are only obeying orders. Most people here are decidedly glad that Mr. Lyons brought Mr. Gregory so promptly to book.