M.P. SUMMONED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 152, 30 June 1938, Page 9

M.P. SUMMONED

MILITARY COURT COMMONS SENSATION ANIMATED SCENE BREACH OF PRIVILEGE RULED (British Official Wireless.) (Received June 30, 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, June 29. Developments in connection with .he question of Parliamentary privilege which was raised in the House af Commons last Monday had a dramatic sequel in the House oi Commons .today when Mr. D. Sandys (Conservative) announced that in his rapacity as an officer of the Territorial Army he had received orders io appear tomorrow in uniform to jive evidence before a military court jf inquiry. Mr. Sandys appealed to the Speaker for guidance and said that the question of how far it was permissible to compel a member of Parliament to divulge a source of information used by him in the discharge of his Parliamentary duties was in process of being considered by the House, and in those circumstances he submitted that it was a gross breach of privilege of the House that he should be summoned before a military tribunal. -He asked the Speaker to declare that he had made out a prima facie case oi breach of privilege. Mr. Speaker ruled that Mr. Sandys had made out a prima facie case oi a breach. GREAT INTEREST AROUSED. Tomorrow's debate on the motion foi establishing a Select Committee to inquire into the question of members privileges in connection with the Official Secrets Act has aroused great interest both in Parliament and the Press, and Mr. Sandys's appeal to the Speaker and the disclosure that he had been summoned before a military tribunal in advance of this debate and of the report of the Select Committee caused a marked sensation in the House. The Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Attlee, the Minister of War, Mr. HoreBelisha, Mr. Winston Churchill, and others participated in an animated scene* Mr. Attlee and Sir Percy Harris both called attention to what they regarded as a curious circumstance—that while the House had taken cognisance of certain incidents and on the motion of Mr. 'Chamberlain himself was to establish a Select Committee to inquire into these matters, the Army Council, for which Mr. Hore-Belisha and the whole Government must take responsibility, had appointed a tribunal to inquire into cognate questions and had summoned a member of the House to appear before it in his military & Mr, Chamberlain contended that the appointment of a military court of inciuirv was an almost automatic pro* ceeding, and he and Mr. Hore-Belishs argued that there was no question ol the court , of inquiry .trespassing upon the privileges of the House or interfering with the inquiry of the Select Committee, which was directed to * quite different question. Mr Hore-Belisha said that the purpose of the court of inquiry was to asCertain if, and if so how, an officer oi the British Army had committed « breach of trust. It was in the public interest that such an inquiry should b held at once, because it could no serve any purpose that a leakage oi secret information should be allowec without a proper investigation beinj made. , Mr. Churchill and other members drew attention to the need for immediate guidance to Mr. Sandys, who was under military orders to attend th< court in the morning.

SUMMONS SUSPENDED. Mr. Chamberlain later announced that the Minister of War had agreed to ask the Army Council to suspend the summons to Mr. Sandys as a territorial officer until the Committee of Privilege had reported on the prima facie case of breach of P" v ' lege which the Speaker had ruled had been members recalled incidents in the long struggle of Parliament to establish its privileges against the Crown and the Executive, and insisted that an issue of comparable gravity had arisen, but Sir Arnold Wilson suggested that the country, as opposed to the House, was mainly concerned to see that if any servant of the Crown had acted in dereliction of his duty he should be brought before a competent C< The Committee of Privilege met this evening for over an hour and will meet again tomorrow.