AWKWARD WITNESS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1934, Page 13

AWKWARD WITNESS

CANADIAN COMMITTEE

ALLEGATION OF GRAFT

OTTAWA, May 10.

Mr. Walter M. Stewart, president of the W. 0. Mcßonald Tobacco Company, of Montreal, informed, the Parliamentary Mass Buying Committee that the McDonald Company Tva3 asked to donate money to the Conservative campaign fund in the 1930 Federal election. •

Naming Mr. Ward Pitfield, of Montreal,' whom he described as a man close to the present Prime Minister, as the" man who solicited the donation, Mr. Stewart said that he was left with the impression that the contribution would be interpreted as meaning he wanted the excise duty on cigarettes reduced. It was inferred, he said, that other manufacturers had donated but he refused to chip in. • He said that at least one of his competitors had advance information when the excise tax was to be reduced from six dollars to four in 1932, and stopped manufacturing cigarettes in anticipation. He said this was the Pucket factory at Hamilton, Ontario, a subsidiary of the Imperial Tobacco Company.

Mr. Stewart, at the start of his evidence, wanted to call three unnamed members of the Government and ask them questions. ■ '.■■'. . •

When told by the Minister of Trade and Commerce, the Hon. H. H. Stevens, chairman of the Committee, that the task of the Committee was 'to investigate the tobacco industry, Mr. Stewart replied: "What I am trying to talk about is buying the Government." Two or three times he wanted to direct questions to Cabinet Ministers on how his competitors could have obtained the tip on excise reduction, but the Committee took no formal recognition of his attempts.