We feel that Mr. Hayes Fisher is largely the victim
of a vicious system. If there had been a strict rule in regard to Ministers and directorships and their dealings with companies, either public or which some day might be turned into public companies, Mr. Hayes Fisher would never have sacrificed his career. Considering the temptations to go into apparently "good things" offered to men connected with the Government, it is not fair to leave them without the safeguard of a clear rule. We do not want to be pedantically Puritan in the matter, and as a business man the present writer certainly has no desire to see politics and business divorced; but considering all the circumstances, is it unreasonable to ask that the Government should appoint a small Committee to consider the whole problem P A Judge (say Lord Justice Vaughan Williams), three ex-Cabinet Ministers (say Lord Rosebery, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, and Lord Gosclien), and a business man (say Sir William Mather) might lay down a rule or principle as to the holding of directorships by Cabinet Ministers, and also as to the character of business transactions which a man should avoid while in office of any kind.
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