TO RESIGN

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 9

TO RESIGN

TWO COMMONS MEMBERS MIL THOMAS AND SIR ALFRED BUTT THE BUDGET LEAKAGE (British Official Wireless.) ' (Received June 12, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, June 11. Mr. J. H. Thomas announced his intention to resign his Parliamentary representation of Derby when he made a personal statement relating to the report of the inquiry into the Budget leakage at the end of House of Commons question time this afternoon. He said he had reached this decision despite the support which he had received from political associations in his constituency, the loyalty of which he appreciated.

Mr. Thomas was followed by Sir Alfred Butt, who also signified his intention to resign his seat.

The resignations 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 a National Labour member, and in the Balham and Tooting Division, which has returned Sir Alfred Butt as a Conservative member since 1922. A DISTASTEFUL TASK. The debate on the report of the tribunal was opened by the Prime Minister, who emphasised the difference between the judicial tribunal which Parliament had constituted for the purpose of inquiry into the Budget disclosures and an ordinary Court of law, since, he said, 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 present 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 I it undertook its task and the promptness and thoroughness with which it had ! discharged it. In resigning from Parliament while maintaining, as he had a 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 had taken a course which deserved and would receive the full sympathy of the House. The Leader of the Opposition, Major Attlee, and the Liberal Leader. Sir Archibald Sinclair, associated themselves with the Prime Minister's expression of thanks to Mr. Justice Porter and his colleagues on the judicial tribunal. « PROBITY IN PUBLIC LIFE. Major Attlee said that two members of the House had been found by the tribunal to have acted in a manner inconsistent with the positions they held in public life. It was their clear duty to vindicate the honour of the House. The country was proud of the probity of its public servants, and righly exacted from them a very , high standard, and they could not accept a lower one from members of the House or those who held high positions in the Government. But they all deeply regret,, ted that Mr. Thomas's long and distinguished career should have had such an ending. « ~ , Sir Archibald Sinclair agreed that the incidents disclosed in the tribunal s report were deplorable, but said that happily they were of a kind rare in British public life. That that was so was not due to fortuitous circumstances but to the jealousy with which they guarded the probity of public life and the quickness with which theyacted whenever it was impugned. That attitude must be maintained, for it was the greatest and the only safeguard against the chronic scandals and festering corruption from which other countries had found it difficult to purify their public life.

EXPIATION IN FULL

laboub urges inquiry : GAMBLING IK THE CITY (Received June 12, noon.) LONDON, June 11. In the course of his speech, the Minister said that Sir Alfred Butt.had also taken the proper course. Expiation in full had been made by both members. They had left the House for the last time, and it was closed to them. The careless and "nthjnking cruelty of modern publicity had been theirs for weeks. They were paying the penalty in full. There was no appeal from the findings, and whatever stigma there was from tk e re P or £ remained for all time Let us hope with all our hearts," he added, that we shall never participate in so painful 3 he said he would change his motion so as to read that the House accepted the report. "CORRUPTION IN THE CITY."

Major Attlee indicated that he would not now move his amendment: "In view of the definite findings of the tribunal and the disclosures of gambling practices in the City of London, this House calls upon the Government to take appropriate action. Major Attlee attacked "corrupt influences emanating from gamblers in the City, and said it was high time that there was a clean-up of the City superstructure. Mere gambling had been built up upon legitimate institutions, and the Opposition urged an inquiry into the matter. Mr. J. Maxton (Ind. Labour Party) said he had known Mr. Thomas for almost thirty years and had been associated with him for many years in the work of the Labour Party. At no time during that period did I or those associated with me approve of his methods of general political conduct, he said. Nevertheless, they regretted that his political career should end in this way. Mr. W. Gallacher (Communist) said that Mr. Thomas had talked about his vices, if they were vices, but the Government had encouraged him in them. They knew that the more he got into society the more he was their man. (Laughter.) Mr. Thomas did not suddenly develop corruption. He was brought into contact with the captains of industry and the politicians representing them, and they had patted him on the back. If Mr. Thomas was the "Artful Dodger 1 " In the Labour

movement, Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald was the Fagin. "BETRAYAL OF THE PEOPLE." Proceeding to criticise Sir Donald Somervell's ruling that criminal proceedings could not be taken, Mr. Gallacher said it had created a suspicion that there were reasons why there should be no prosecutions. Were they afraid that other things would come out? Men had been hanged on less circumstantial evidence than was! available in this case. "I understand you are not. prosecuting because it. would expose and end the rule of the N_t.ional Government, which is founded j on corruption and betrayal of the peo- j pie," he said. A Conservative, Colonel G. K. M. j Mason here shouted: "You dirty swine." Labour members demanded a withdrawal of the expression. Colonel Mason rose an<" said he would apologise for using such an unparliamentary word. The Labour members were not satisfied, and Colonel Mason rose again and formally withdrew the expression. The Attorney-General (Sir Donald Somervell) said he was satisfied there was no evidence to justify proceedings for perjury against any witnesses before the tribunal. As regarded the Official Secrets Act he was satisfied that evil intent was a necessary ingredient of an offence. NO RECURRENCE. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Neville Chamberlain) said that gambling could not be stopped by legislation. It had been suggested that Lloyds should have a sort of close season, from the end of the financial year, March 31, until the Budget was announced in the House of Commons, in which no Budget risk could be accepted. Lloyds had assented. Thus what had happened would not happen again. In the meantime Lloyds had appealed to underwriting agents not to accept insurance contingency risks without assuring themselves that the insured had legitimate interests to be |covered.

The House then divided on the Labour amendment, which was moved by Mr. F. Johnston after Major Attlee's statement that he personally would not move it, with the result that it was rejected by 227 votes to 135.

The motion to accept the report was then agreed to without a division.

A PAINFUL OCCASION

THE MEMBERS' SPEECHES

DEPARTURE IN SILENCE

(Received June 12, 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. ' Crowds witnessed Mr. Thomas's . arrival. i In replying to Mr. E. Thurtle (Labour), the Prime Minister said he attached no credence to an allegation that a rise in Newfoundland stocks preceding the issue of the report of the Commission examining the island's finances indicated a leakage of official information. Mr. Thomas rose amidst tense silence. He said that no member had ever addressed the House in such painful circumstances, and he hoped that never again would a member be similarly placed. Referring to his resignation from the Ministry, he said he felt sure that the House would agree that he took the only course open. "I wish to make it clear to my per-] sonal friends," he said, "that I intended to accept the findings of the tribunal without challenge, whatever they might I be, not because a judicial body is infallible, but because I believe there is j no more impartial tribunal than a British judicial tribunal, and I felt that of this tribunal. "However keenly I felt its report, I. am entitled to say, regardless of thc ( report, that I never consciously gave a Budget secret away. I repeat that, regardless of the tribunal's findings. j "To attempt to deal with some of. my private affairs would be as pain-j ful to me as it would be unfair to the House. My vices, if they are vices, have always been open, and never disguised, even from my own family." Mr. Thomas's face became more and more flushed and his voice less steady as he proceeded. IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION. "I intend to resign from the House immediately and wish to thank all parties for their kindness, often generosity, over a period of twentyseven years," he proceeded. "1 can only hope that during that long period I have made some contribution to what today is almost the only bulwark of democratic Government in the world. I would only say that no word of this debate can wound me more than I feel wounded. Nothing, nothing can ever be said that can humilitate 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." Mr. Thomas said he 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, and then rose and walked dejectedly from the House in dead silence. RIGHT TO TRIAL. Sir Alfred Butt's voice was hardly audible. He said this was a most painful occasion to address the House, and it would be his last address in the present Parliament. "I say emphatically," he declared, i "that no member of Cabinet has ever consciously or unconsciously disclosed to me any confidential information. "When I heard of 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 have had full notice of the charge against me, and where only properly admissible evidence would be given. Then I heard there would not be a prosecution and 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 based on evidence which apparently does not justify a trial. There is no method open to me by which I can bring the issue before a jury.

With the greatest respect, I cannot conceive that the combined ingenuity of the Lord Chancellor, the Home Secretary, and the AttorneyGeneral could not devise a method to bring a vital issue to a Court, but as they have not devised a method how can I ask the House to acquit me. If any good had to come from this most miserable moment in my life I hope my position may be something to prevent anybody else being subject to this humiliation. "VICTIM OF INJUSTICE."

"I feel from the bottom of my heart that I am a victim of a grave injustice, and I hope and pray that some means is still available to enable me to prove my integrity. I propose to apply immediately for the Chiltern Hundreds. Until today I had no intention of resigning, but having regard for Mr. Thomas's action I feel it would be impossible for me to take up a different position." Sir Alfred Butt rose, left his seat, bowed to the Speaker, and left the House.

No duly clected member of the Commons can resign his seat; he must apply for some; office of profit under the

Crown, and so vacate his seat under the Act of Settlement of 1707, and the usual practice is to apply for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds (Stoke, Burnham, and Desborough, in Buckinghamshire), or of the Manor of Poynings, or Northstead, or the Escheatorship of Munster, whereupon the seat is declared vacant (under the Place Act of 1742, which expressly permitted acceptance of such offices to serve as an excuse for resignation) and a new wit is issued by the Speaker,