NEVER GAVE BUDGET SECRETS AWAY.

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

NEVER GAVE BUDGET SECRETS AWAY.

DENIAL REPEATED. Member's Plea for Trial by Court of Law. TENSE SCENES ON DEPARTURE. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. Crowds witnessed the arrival of Mr. J. H. Thomas at the House of Commons to make his statement in the debate on the finding of the Budget inquiry that found he had disclosed secret information. Mr. Thomas rose to speak amid tense silence. He said that 110 member liad ever addressed the House in such painful circumstances, and he hoped never again would a member be similarly placed. Referring to his resignation from the Ministry, he said: "I feel sure the House will agree that I took the only course open. I wish to make it clear to my personal friends that I intended to acccpt the findings of the tribunal without challenge whatever they might be, not because a judicial body is infallible, but because I believe there is no more impartial tribunal than a British judicial tribunal and I felt that of this tribunal. "However, keenly 1 felt, its report, I am entitled to say, regardless of that report, that I never consciously gave a Budget secret away. I repeat that, regardless of the tribunal's findings. "To,attempt to deal with some of my private affairs would be as painful to me as it would be unfair to the House. My vices, if they are vices, have always been open and never disguised even j from my own family."

No Strength to Fight By-Election. Mr. Thomas' facc became more and more flushed and Ins voice less steady as he proceeded. "I intend to resign from this House immediately. I thank all parties for kindness and often generosity over a period of 27 years. I can only hope that during that long period I have made some contribution to what to-day is almost the only bulwark of democratic government in the world. "I would only say that 110 word of this debate can wound me more than I now feel wounded. Nothing, nothing can ever be said that can humiliate me more than I have been humiliated, but I can at least go to one who has shared all my trials and troubles and who still believes in me in this darkest hour of my life." Here Mr. Thomas looked up at the Speaker's Gallery where his wife and his daughter sat. Mr. Thomas said that lie had no strength left to fight a by-election. He spoke for six minutes and ended almost in tears. He sat down amid a few sympathetic cheers, then he rose and walked dejectedly from the House in dead silence.

Sir A. Butt Clears Mr. Thomas. Sir Alfred Butt (Con., Wandsworth), in a voice hardly audible, said this was the most painful occasion on which he could address the House. It would be his last address to this Parliament. "I say emphatically that no Cabinet Minister has ever consciously or unconsciously disclosed to me any confidential information. When I heard the appalling decision of the tribunal, conscious as I was of the grave injustice done to me, I thought I should have an absolute right of trial in the Courts, where I should liaVe had full notice of the charge against me, and where only properly admissable evidence would be given. "Then I heard I was not to be prosecuted, that my case would not be heard. I have been condemned, and apparently must suffer for the rest of my life from findings against which there is no appeal and which are based 011 evidence that apparently does not justify a trial. Most Miserable Moment of Life. "There is no method open to me by which I can bring the issue before a jury. With the greatest respect I say that I cannot conceive that the combined ingenuity of the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Hailsliam, the Home Secretary, Sir John Simon, and the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Donald Somervell, could not devise a method to bring a vital issue to the Court, but as they have not devised a method how can I ask the House to acquit me? "If any good has to come from this, the most miserable moment of my life, I hope that my position may be some-

thing to prevent anybody else being subject to this humiliation. I feel from the bottom of my heart that I am the victim of a grave injustice. "I hope and pray that some means may still be available to enable me to prove my integrity. I propose to apply immediately for the Cliiltern Hundreds. "Until to-day I had no intention of resigning, but having regard to Mr. Thomas' action I feel it would be impossible for me to take up a different position." Sir Alfred then rose, left his seat, bowed to the Speaker and left the House.