BUDGET LEAKAGES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19038, 11 June 1936, Page 5

BUDGET LEAKAGES

NO CHARGE INTENDED MINISTER'S EXPLANATION POSITION Ob 1 MR. THOMAS TALK OF RESIGNATION (Elec. To]. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (B-ecd. June. 11, 11 a.m.) LONDON", June 10. The Attorney-General announced today that he was not instituting criminal proceedings in respect to the leakages of Budget information as declared at the recent inquiry.

He said that the law required that unauthorised communications be deliberate and if there was any doubt as to whether a disclosure was deliberate or inadvertent, the accused was entitled to acquittal. Moreover, a fundamental principle of criminal law is that a jury would act only on the evidence presented at a trial. It would be impossible to obtain a jury not familiar with the findings of the. tribunal and much of the evidence which the tribunal bad considered.

FOREIGN TO JUSTICE It would be foreign to British methods if information resulting from the exercise of the wide powers of compulsory interrogation, such as the tribunal had, should be made the basis of a subsequent criminal charge. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, indicated that Mr. J. H. Thomas and Sir Alfred Butt would make statements to-morrow. The Evening News understands that Mi-. Thomas mot the chairman of the Derby Conservatives and intimated be intended to resign the Derby seat. The chairman advised against such a step. Mr. Thomas is believed to have dis cussed the statement he intends to make in the House of Commons to-morrow with frieuds. It will be brief and reaffirm that he did not disclose Budget secrets, and that his conscience is clear. TALK WITH MR. MACDONALD The Daily Herald's political correspondent says that Mr. Thomas visited the House of Commons, but did not appear in the Chamber. He was closeted for 15 minutes with Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who urged on Mr. Thomas that the resignation of his seat was the only proper course. The Daily Mail's political correspon dent says that as the result of his talk with Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Thomas has decided to resign his seat. The executive of the Labour Party members in the House of Commons has decided to question the Government regarding the alleged leakage respecting Newfoundland bonds. It is understood that the Government has already made inquiries, and Mr. Neville Chamberlain may make a statement during Thurs day's debate.