Sir Edgar Speyer himself also issued in New York a
reply to the report. The sense of his defence was that the charges were trivial and grotesque ; that his accusers evidently did not understand the elements of international finance, since he only did what every banker was compelled to do, and that his evasions of the censorship were of the most innocent kind. We do not in the least want to exaggerate Sir Edgar Speyer's transgressions. There was no startling act of treachery or disloyalty ; there was only a willingness to make the best of both worlds—the British and the German—and a, callous indifference to the necessary forms and obligations of good citizenship. No scrupulous man would have been guilty of such things and it is to be noticed that they called forth earnest reproaches from his English partners. To Sir Edgar Speyer the fact that he was a Privy Councillor ought to have been the controlling influence in his conduct. But it meant to him little or nothing. Altogether we cannot regard the findings of the Committee as unjust unless we are to disparage the Privy Councillor's oath.
Previous page
