TWO MEMBERS RESIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 7

TWO MEMBERS RESIGN.

TRAGIC END OF MR. THOMAS' CAREER. PATHETIC LAST SIX-MINUTE SPEECH. BUDGET FINDINGS AGAIN REFUTED. Britieh Official Wireless.—Bee. 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, June 1 1. The resignations of Mr. J. H. Thomas and of Sir Alfred Butt will necessitate by-elections in the Derby division for which Mr. Thomas has sat continuously .since 1910, having been returned at the last two general elections as National Labour member, and in the Belham and Tooting division, which returned Sir Alfred Butt as Conservative member since 1922. The debate on the Budget tribunal report was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, who emphasised the difference between a judicial tribunal, which Parliament constituted for purposes of inquiry into the Budget disclosures, and an ordinary court of law, since, as he said, a grave injustice would be done to the two members affected by the report if the distinction were overlooked and they were regarded as having been found guilty of a criminal act. It was his responsible, though distasteful task, as Leader of the House, to move that the report of the tribunal be accepted. He said that Mr. Thomas, whose long public career was well known and whose loyal co-operation in the Government he gratefully acknowledged, had recognised that the House was bound to accept the findings of the tribunal, regarding which Mr. Baldwin declared they all acknowledged the sense of duty under which it undertook its task and the promptness and thoroughness with which it discharged it. In resigning from Parliament, while maintaining as he had the perfect right to do, that he was conscious of no offence, Mr. Thomas had consulted his own dignity and the dignity of the House and taken the course which deserved and would receive the full sympathy of the House.