BUDGET LEAKAGE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 155, 12 June 1936, Page 8

BUDGET LEAKAGE

NO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS. STATEMENT IN COMMONS. No Pr«of Of Deliberate • Disclosure. TO-MORROW'S DRAMA. Press Association —Copyright. London, June 10. The Attorney-General, Sir Donald Somerville, announced in the House of Commons to-day that he will not institute criminal proceedings in respect of the Budget leakages. The law required unauthorised communications to be deliberate, he said, and if there was any doubt whether a disclosure was deliberate or inadvertent the accused was entitled to acquittal.

The fundamental principle of criminal law was that the jury should act only on 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 had considered.

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. Mr. Stanley Baldwin indicated that Mr. J. H. Thomas and Sir Alfred Butt would make a statement to-morrow.

The Evening News understands that Mr. Thomas met Mr. Alton, chairman of the Derby Conservatives, and intimated that he intended to resign. Mr. Alton advised against such a step. Mr. Thomas is believed to have discussed the statement he intends to make in the House to-morrow with friends. It will be brief and will reaffirm that he did not disclose the Budget secrets and that his conscience is clear.

Motion Altered

A British official wireless message states that after the Attorney-General had made his announcement the PrimeMinister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, announced that the Government would table a formal motion for to-morrow that the tribunal's report "be now considered," which will not prejudice the course of the discussion. The Government's motion was later altered to read "that the tribunal's report be now considered and approved." The Daily Herald's political correspondent says that this is obviously tantamount to a vote of censure on Mr. Thomas, but adds that the alteration was due to the Opposition's persistence. Opposition members in supplementary questions suggested that the Government, and the Prime Minister as the Leader of the House in particular, had a responsibility to make recommendations arising out of the report, but Mr. Baldwin refused to anticipate the course of the debate. He informed the House that Mr. Thomas and Sir Alfred Butt had expressed their intention of being in their places to make' personal statements at the end of the questions tomorrow. The statements are expected to be brief, and the two members will then withdraw from the House. in the debate Labour members will move an addendum to the Government motion that "in view of the definite findings of the tribunal and the disclosures of gambling practices in the City of London this House calls on the Government to take appropriate action." The Derby election committee passed u resolution urging Mr. Thomas to continue his representation, and expressing 1o Mr. Thomas the full and complete confidence of the committee, mindful of his 25 years' devoted service to Derby, and assuring him of its continued loyal support."