MARCONI ENQUIRY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 79, 3 April 1914, Page 7

MARCONI ENQUIRY

INVESTIGATION CLOSED. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright.) (Received April 3, 11 a.m.) LONDON, 2nd April. The House of Lords' Committee of Enquiry into Lord Murray of Elibank's transactions in Marconi shares lias concluded its investigation. STORY OF TRANSACTIONS Lord Murray resigned his post as Chief Government Whip in August, 1912, and received a peerage. No one at that time knew that he had invested party funds in American Marconi shares, or that he had bought some for himself. He accepted an important post in the great firm of contractors and oil-owners of which Lord Cowdray is head, and on Ist January, 1913, lelt for South America. He had thus been away more than a year. Three months before Lord Murray went away the first Marconi debate took place in the House of Commons, when Mr. Lloyd George and Sir Rufus Isaacs indignantly denied that they had ever dealt in English Marconi shares, while telling the House nothing about their deals in American \larconis. At this time Lord Murray held 3000 American Marconi shares on behalf of the Liberal Party, as well as 1500 which he had bought for himself. He stayed in the country for three months without divulging the facts. It was not until 19th March, 1913, in his action against Le Matin, that Sir Rufus Isaacs (now Lord Chief Justice and Lord Reading of Erleigh) made public the fact that he had bought 10,000 American Marconis the April before, and s that of these ho had sold "2000 to ' Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Murray. When .Sir Rufus Isaacs gave evidence before the Marconi Committee on 28th March, 1913, he announced that Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Murray had also bought other American Marconi shares for themselves. Nothing was said about the £9000 investment of Liberal Party funds in American Marconis, for the simple reason that Lord Murray had told none of his colleagues about it when he was Chief Whip, and he was, afc the time of the action, in Bogota. It was not until a newspaper demanded that Mr. Salaman, the accountant and trustee for Mr. C. E. Fenner, Lord Murray's vanished broker, should be called as a witness before the Marconi Committee and he was accordingly called, that the fact of Lord Murray's party investment was made known. Mr. C. E. Fenner had vanished on 14th April, 1913, leaving 1 Lord Murray a creditor for £30,000 of Liberal Party money entrusted to him for investment. When Mr. Sa/aman produced some of Mr. (Tenner's books before the Committee it was found that some investments were entered in the name of the Master of Elibank (now Lord Murray), others in the name of "Master of Elibank Trust," and there was one in the joint names of the Master of Elibank and Mr. Percy lUingworth, then Lord Murray's junior as Whip, and later his successor as Chief Whip. Mr. Illingworth made the astonishing statement that when Lord Murray handed over the control of the Whip's office he gave Mr. Illingworth a list of securities belonging to the party — but the 3000 American Marconis were not among them, and he could find no record of the purchase among the papers handed to him. This riddle was partly; solved by Captain Murray (says a writer in the Daily Express), who told the Committee that before going to America Lord Murray consulted Sir Frank Crisp, the solicitor, about Fenner's default, and it was decided that he should tell none of his colleagues about his purchase of American Marconis with Liberal Party funds, " until the Marconi business was cleared up/ as hs wished to take the whole responsibility. ijord Murray was away in Bogota at this time. In reply to a. message from the chairman of the Marconi Committee asking him when he could attend and give evidence, he had cabled, on 10th April :— " Shall be glad to testify on my return. . . In ordinary circumstances, calculate return July. Please inform Committee 1 have never held any interest whatever in English Marconi Company. In any case, shall desire to make personal statement in Parliament on my return." Sir Albert Spicer cabled that July would be too late, adding, " If you desire give evidence, give earliest date arrival in London." Lord Murray of Elibank, before the House of Lords' Committee, declared that all the party Funds used would bo returned. Fenner, the absconding sharesbroker, is being extradited From Paris. ■

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