A Whitehall Inquest
A single dissentient voice served rather to emphasise than to impair the unanimity with which the House of Commons on Wednesday endorsed the Prime Minister's proposal for the appointment of a tribunal under the Act of 1921 to investigate charges of bribery and similar offences involving certain Ministers and officials. Mr. Attlee attempted no circumlocution. He was admirably explicit about the charges—in connection with the abandonment of a prosecution of a football pools firm, a preferential grant of paper to the same firm, the flotation of a public company, the grant of a building-licence and another for the importation of amusement machinery. He even mentioned one particular Minister against whom irregular con- duct has been alleged, but there was general approval for Mr. Churchill's appeal that till the whole matter is cleared up names of persons who may prove completely guiltless 3hould not be cited in casual conversation to their prejudice. The Government has shown itself commendably prompt and thorough in initiating inquiry into an affair which must be probed to its depths. The tribunal cannot be nominated till both Houses have approved the Prime Minister's motion, but there will certainly be no delay, nor is dissatisfaction with the constitution of the tribunal probable. It will sit normally in public, and its. activity will be no bar to any criminal proceedings which the Director of Public Prosecutions may see fit to initiate. The truth should soon be known, and all appropriate action taken.
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