LEAKAGES FROM CABINET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14391, 1 September 1917, Page 5

LEAKAGES FROM CABINET.

PREMIER TAKES SERIOUS VIEW.'

(From Out Parliamentary Ueporter.) > WELLINGTON, this day. ! Mr McCbmbs' promised solution of the mystery of how the Military Service Act Amendment dealing with the conscription of youths leaked out was given yesterday, but threw no light on the original source of information, as he got the clause from a weekly newspaper published on Thursday. , "Somebody has done wrong m coil' nection with the Bill ; it has got olit from the Cabinet," commented the Premier. He remembered the late Mr Seddon taking this kind of thing so seriously that he set, up a Royal Commission to ascertain the source of the leakage of confidential information. The Commission to a, deal of trouble, but' he was afraid the results did not amount to much. An unfair and unjust suspicion rested upon two • members., o.f .the . Cabinet) and it was years before it was cleared up m an unexpected manner. "I mention this:to show the seriousness of attempting to get information by improper methods. For instance," continued the Premier, waving a document, "I have a Bill from the Law Drafting Department. It is quite right so far as I am concerned, but if it got out of my hands into the newspapers it woutd set the country into a blaze." . • ... . ,Mr Webb: It must be pretty hot. ! Mr Massey explained that, the trouble would be that it would create a wrong impression. It did not convey what he intended. He would not send the Bill back for amendment, but would bring .it before the Cabinet ■ where tit would be altered m accordance with the ideas of; Ministers. ' .