Apart from what the Nation calls questions of honour, the
points on which the public requires to be satisfied by the Com- mittee are very well summarized in a letter from Sir Henry Norman in the Daily Chronicle of Wednesday. He says that the Government have already secured, for a cash payment, everything they need from the Marconi Company by the Post Office Agreement of September 29th, 1909. If this contention is wrong in law, proof ought to have been offered by the Government. He further says that if the agreement of 1909 is not valid or sufficient the Government should proceed under the Patents Act of 1907. In any case, he holds that the con- tract with the Company is in many respects gravely opposed to the public interest, and that the proper course is for the Government to erect, own unconditionally, and manage the wireless stations themselves, as is done in Australia. Such matters as these are not, of course, disposed of by the collapse of Mr. Lawson.
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