The Northern Advocate Daily "NORTHLAND FIRST” WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1938. The Case Of Mr. Scrimgeour

Northern Advocate, 10 August 1938, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily "NORTHLAND FIRST”

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1938. The Case Of Mr. Scrimgeour

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper

ONCE again Mr C. G. Scrimgeour is the central figure in a political sensation of the first magnitude. Those who heard his oration on Sunday evening must have suspected that some unusual circumstances lay behind it, and the disclosure that he had previously written out his resignation confirms that suspicion. It appears, however, to have been a peculiarly provisional and tentative kind of resignation. In effect, he has simply said: “If yon disapprove of what I have done, I am prepared to go. If yon approve, I am happy to remain.” Mr Scrimgeour did not take what would have been the bolder and more straightforward course of resigning unconditionally. There appears to have been no ring of finality about it at all. The Hon. Mr Jones stated in the House, very properly, that bad the script of Mr Scrimgeour’s remarks been submitted beforehand the broadcast would not have been allowed. He also said, Somewhat moderately, that he was “surprised” at the tenor of the speech. It seems curious, nevertheless, that when Mr Jones received the controller’s resignation, he did not inquire what was afoot. He had six days.to do it in, and, surely, men holding important executive positions do not resign so frequently that no inqniiies are made as to the reasons. » It would seem that Mr Scrimgeour simply wanted to give himself a free hand in dealing with his critics, and he apparently saw nothing improper in utilising for that purpose a chain of radio stations which belong to the State, and which are maintained by advertisers, whose views, in the majority of cases, certainly do not coincide with those expounded in his own inimitable way by Mr Scrimgeour on Sunday evening. It was at first thought that Mr Scrimgeour s vitriolic discourse might have been prompted by criticism of the Government s radio policy in the House on Friday, but the disclosure that Ins resignation was written out six days beforehand, and that the thoughts he phrased so choicely bad been taking shape in bis mind for nearly a week, divests it of even the redeeming virtue of spontaneity. . It remains to be‘seen now whether the Government will accept his resignation. The probabilities are that it will do so, for there is known to be a section of Cabinet which does not see eye to eye with the Prime Minister in his warm personal regard foi My Scrimgeour. In any ease, failure to accept his resignation would be tantamount to placing the seal of official approval on his actions. Already the contrast between the Government’s hesitancy in dealing with Mr Scrimgeour and its summary treatment of the four colonels can hardly escape notice.