ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1913. THOSE MARCONI SHARES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 139, 14 June 1913, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1913. THOSE MARCONI SHARES.

Lord Murray of Elibank's private business in South America may be of a highly important nature; but the fact that the Liberal Members on ttie Marconi Committee did not oppose Lord Robert. Cecil's motion shows that they recognise that both the party and -the public consider that the ex-Chief Whip should return to England at once and give evidence. The motion) did not verbally express any demand or subpoena, the making of which is quite. within the powers of a Parliamentary committee; but it practically! amounted to, the same thine, and-if Lord Murray puts, as he should -do,; the honor of his colleagues and the political prospects of his party before all private considerations, he should soon be on his way back to London. Lord Murray's cablegram, it will be noticed, confirms the statements made by Mr Lloyd George and Sir Rufus Isaacs as to the dealings of these gentlemen, as private individuals, in American Marconi shares. But it also confirms the fact that Lord Murray^ as Chief Whip to the party, invested money from the Liberal party's campaign funds in Marconi shares. It may be said that Lord Murray, having sole control of these funds, had a perfect rig^it to choose his investments as he liked; but on. this point there will be much difference of opinion. The Government was, at the time the investment was made, in negotiation with the Marconi and other companies possessing wireless rights and running wireless telegraphic enterprises. lii may be quite true that Mr Herbert Samuel, as PostmasterGeneral, had no knowledge of Lord Murray's investments in, American Marconi shares; but Lord Murray, on his side, could hot. have been ignorant of what was a fact daily referred to, in the newspaper press, namely, that the Postmaster-General had to decide which system the Government would adopt. And, knowing.this, surely it was the height of indiscretion for Lord Murray to invest party funds—the Government party's funds—in a company which.' in America., controlled the same system as that whicth the British Marconi Company were so strongly urging the British PostmasterGeneral to adopt. Lord Murray may. have acted as he did in perfect honesty, considering that the Marconi shares offered the most profitable investment of party fundis; but the general public can hardly be blamed if they hold that the transaction should never have been entered into. And the worst of it is that the facts as to this investmest of party funds with the American Marconi Company wore held back so long, and are now being; made public only through the bankruptcy of a stockbroker. We a,re more than ever afraid that this Marconi business is going to inflict very serious damage upon the prospects of the Liberal party at the next general election. The sooner Lord Murray returns to England and ■submits himself for examination by the Parliamentary committee the better; and we only hope that his evidence, when given, may place a more satisfactory complexion upon what at present appears to have been, at the least, a most indiscreet, and, ethically considered, a very doubtfully proper transaction.