The Marconi Deal

New Zealand Tablet, 16 March 1922, Page 39

The Marconi Deal

(By Hilaire Belloc, in the New Witness.)

Your reviewer quotes Mr. Stephen McKenna as saying in his Memoirs that the Marconi politicians (Rufus Isaacs, Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel, Murray, arid Handel Booth) did nothing dishonest.

If Mr. Stephen McKenna said this, the error was natural enough; for the boycott in the general Press was rigid at the time, and though the facts of the Marconi affair are now "released" for history, and are familiar all over the Continent and the United States, they Mere so studiously concealed and confused here, at the moment when people in England were chiefly interested, that very many then received —and have retaineda blurred impression of them.

I will tabulate the main facts, and if Mr. McKenna should chance to see these lines, I think he will revise his judgment.

It is necessary to preface the table with certain relations which are of common knowledge, but which must be recalled for the purpose of understanding what happened.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is that Public Servant who overlooks and controls public financial operations and is the guardian of public interests; the post was held at that moment by Lloyd George.

The Postmaster-General is that Public Servant who can give or withhold Post Office contracts, subject to the general control of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; the post was held at that moment by Herbert Samuel.

The Chief Whip is that Public Servant who arranges debates in the House of Commons, decides what is to be debated, and when.. On him, more than any other, depends the suppression or ventilation of any public question. He is also, as a politician, the disposer of the Secret Party Funds, of which no accounts are kept; the post was held at that time by Murray of Elibank, since dead.

The Attorney-General is that Public Servant who looks after the legal interests of the Government, advises or directs prosecution of its critics (subject to the Prime Minister), and has great influence over the course of trials, particularly Political Trials; the post was held at that time by Rufus Isaacs, the son and nephew of the Brothers Isaacs, famous in the last generation for the Hansard Union Scandal.

Rufus Isaacs had an obscure brother, one Godfrey Isaacs, a company promoter, who had recently taken up a group of companies known as the Marconi Companiesformed to earn money for him and others by the use of certain wireless patents.

He also had a bosom friend, one Handel Booth, then a Member of Parliament for Pontefract.

With this preface we can proceed to our table of the main facts, so far as they (ire certainly known.

1. Herbert Samuel prepared to give to the Marconi people, that is, to Godfrey Isaacs, an extremely valuable monopoly, which would have compelled all ships to use Marconi apparatus, and would have bound the Empire to its use. The public knew nothing of this scheme, but it had the effect on those in the know of raising the shares from a few shillings to several pounds. 2. Rufus Isaacs then handed over, secretly, large blocks of Marconi shares to Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Murray of Elibank, Chief Whip. 3. Murray of Elibank took money out of the Secret Party Funds, and with them made the market for Marconi shares on the Exchange.

4. Herbert Samuel, with the connivance of Murray of Elibank, put down the contract on the Order Paper of the House of Commons in such a place as to avoid discussion ; to wit, the last thing in the last night of the session. It was intended to pass unnoticed.

5. A Private Member "put his name down" against it; that is, registered himself as opposing the monopoly, and so forcing a discussion.

6. Mr. Cecil Chesterton and I (he being then editor of this paper) denounced' the affair in general terms to public attention just before the session came to an end. 7. Herbert Samuel, in a panic (a) Asked the Prime Minister to have me prosecuted, so as to prevent further revelations, (o) Approached the Private Member .in question, and implored him to withdraw his opposition and

discussion of the contract. Luckily for England the Private Member refused.

The contract was, therefore, held up. The recess followed, and the public grew more and more aware that some scandal was in the air, though, with a rigid Press boycott to blind them, they could not judge it.

8. After the recess the politicians proposed a tribunal to investigate the business. They dared not appoint Justices. They appointed a Committee of fellow-Parlia-mentarians. Still, it was a judicial body, bound in theory to honorable and impartial action.

9. They put on this Committee, as its most active member, Handel Booth.

10. Before witnesses were examined, Herbert Samuel, from his place in the House of Commons, affirmed in the most solemn manner that none of his colleagues had touched Marconi shares.

11. Before the examination of the chief witness against the culprits, Rufus Isaacs secretly approached his friend Handel Booth—occupying a judicial position—confessed his guilt and provided him with the material for browbeating the witness, leaving the public ignorant of the true state of affairs.

12. The committee issued two reports. Most of the politicians reported that their colleagues and friends, the Marconi men, were wholly honorable and above suspicion; a minority that at the most they had committed some slight indiscretion.

I have omitted all details, and said nothing of the innumerable ramifications of the affair and its subsidiary nastinesses; nor have I put into this table anything which, however probable, is not now of common knowledge throughout the world.

Such was the process whereby the prestige of the House of Commons received—to. the great advantage of this countryits final blow.