MINISTER OF WORKS CROSS-EXAMINED AT CORRUPTION INQUIRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26957, 17 December 1948, Page 5

MINISTER OF WORKS CROSS-EXAMINED AT CORRUPTION INQUIRY

LONDON, Dec. 15.

The chairman, Mr Justice Lynskey, said to-day at the resumed inquiry into allegations of corruption by Government officials that he had received a number of anonymous letters charging that the Minister of Works, Charles Key, had in return for hospitality given special consideration to a Captain Shiner. Mr Justice Lynskey said the letters had made accusations against Ministers of the Crown, and that was 'why they had been investigaH(f told Key, who was in the witness • box: “In these letters it was alleged that you and other Ministers were in the habit of staying regularly with Captain Shiner, of the company known as Intrade, Ltd., and that he (Shiner) had been seen by a newspaper reporter to whom he boasted that he could obtain any materials he desired. The Attorney-general, Sir Hartley Shawcross. saia he thought the letters came from a journalist. The letters had been found to be largely inaccurate. No Special Consideration

Key admitted he was a “very close personal friend” of Shiner, . but he denied that he had shown him any special consideration. When Sir Hartley' suggested that Key’s association with Shiner “ gave the necessary kick or impetus ” to any matters concerning Intrade, Ltd., Key

replied: “ No more kick than any other letter which came into the office.” Sir Hartley: “I have devoted a little midnight oil in readying 30 of your Ministry of Works flies—from cover to cover in some cases. The fact is that you did intervene in certain of the Intrade Company’s applications.”

Key: It is not so. Handing the file to Key, Sir Hartley said: “That is an instance of a case where a personal letter dealt with in your office resulted in the matter being treated as one of great urgency, and entitled, perhaps, to most favourable consideration.”

Key said that he did not think that a fair interpretation. A large number of cases which had been treated urgently could be found where no personal letter had been sent to the Minister. Key said that he knew letters to him from Shiner had' arrived addressed “My dear Charles,” but these letters were never brought to him and went through the office in the ordinary way. Witness Makes Protest At one point Key protested to the Attorney-general: “It is a strange attitude if a Minister cannot do for people who have been his friends for 20 years the things he would normally do for anybody else.” Key denied that he had ever received monetary payments from Shiner in connection with granting licences. Gordon Lloyd Owen Shiner, manager of Intrade Limited, civil engineers, shipbuilders, and barge builders, said he had been on friendly terms with Key and his family for 20 years. Neither he nor his company had given money to Key. The only present they had given him was a silver salver at a public presentation. Cross-examining Shiner, the fiftyseventh witness, Sir Hartley Shawcross said: “It has been reported in the newspapers that you have said in an interview that you were able to approach Ministers and cut through red tape and get things done.” "hiner: It is a deliberate lie.

Evidence has concluded and counsel will now address the tribunal.