LORD RUNCIMAN

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 262, 3 August 1939, Page 9

LORD RUNCIMAN

Resigns Directorships After New Ruling (Received August 2, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, August 1.. Following an announcement in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister that members of the Cabinet henceforth will be permitted to hold directorships only in companies dealing with family interests or primarily engaged in trading, the Lord President of the Council, Lord Runciman, has resigned from the boards of the Moor Line, the Lord Runciman Shipping Company, David Macßrayne, Ltd., the Macßrayne Trust, Runciman and Co., London, and the L.M.S. Railway Co.

Official Wireless recalls in connexion with the resignation that the original pronouncement which has become part of British constitutional ethics, was made by the then Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, in 1906. He ruled that on becoming members of the Government Ministers must resign all directorships “except in the case of honorary directorships, directorships in connexion with philanthropic undertakings and directorships in private companies.” Mr. Chamberlain explained yesterday that the significance of the term private company had changed in the intervening years, and he intimated that after consultation with his colleagues he proposed to interpret the term in future as applying only to concerns dealing wholly or mainly with family affairs or interests and not primarily engaged in trading. Mr. Chamberlain’s reinterpretation of his predecessor's ruling was made as a result of representations by Mr. D. N. Pritt, K.C., the Labour member for North Hammersmith.