Norwich bulletin., 1917-01-09
Lawson Proved
 a Defiant Witness
AT LEAK" HEARING BEFORE
 HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE.
WOULD GIVE NO NAMES
A Motion to Cite the Boston Finaneier Before the Bar of the House for Contempt Has Been Taken Under Advisement-Tumult and Lansing Made Emphatic DeniaIs.

Washington, Jan. S.-Through a be- wildering maze of intimations and heated colloQuies. which turned the hearing into an uproar, the house rules committee wrest1ed for several hours today with Thomas w. Lawson of Boston, without obtaining any definite information to substantiate the stories of a leak to Wall Street in advance of the presidents peace note
 May Cite Lawson For Contempt.
 When the committee adjourned until tomorrow with MT. Iawson's examina- tfon uncompleted, motion to cite him before the bar of the house for con- tempt because he refused to give the names had been considered in execu- tive session and taken under advise ment.
 Emphatic Denial From TumuIty.
 Earlier in the day Joseph F. Tulmul- ty. secretary to President Wilson, whose name was mentioned by Repre- sentative Wood in the runors he laid before the committee last week. ap- peared to give an emphatic statement, endorsed by the president, that he had no knowledge of the peace note before it was given to the press. He also denied the report. repeated by Repre- sentative Wood that MT. Tumulty and Bernard Baruch. a New York stock broker, had conferred in a New York hotel few days before the note was made public. MT. Tumulty denounced EteDr0SGnIdI1VG wood making public charges based on let ter from an unidentified man and de- clared from the witness stand look ing Representative Wood in the face that he was still awaiting the con gressman's apology.
 Statement by Lansing.
 Secretary. Lansing. of the state de- that he had no knowledge of ad- vance information having been circu- lated regarding the peace note. Mir Lansing related the physical history of the note, how it was prepared, through wbo@f hands it passed, and of his par participation in it's preparation. He also told of a statement he had given in confidence to newspaper men on the morning before the note was trade public. in which he told them to ex- pect a note at , o'clock that evening for publication Thursday morning He did not go intN details with the cor respondents, he said, but did say that it was not a proposaI for peace nor an offer of mediation.
 The seoIetary further stated that he had not given the possible effect of the note on the New York, stock ex- change the least thought but that he had cautioned one of the secretaries because of the courtesy due to the for eign nations that the communication should not be published here before it had been received abroad.
 Lansing curbs ChiperfieId.
 When Representative Chiperfield re- publican. of Illinois. sought to inter rogate Secretary Lansing regarding his interpreta tions of the note on the day following it's publication the sec retary said firmly that such question ing was going beyond the cope of the inquiry and was sustained by the com nittee.
 The committees troubles with MT. Lawson began soon after the financier took the stand and grew into a noisy row, quieted only after Chairman Hen
 (Continued on Pace Three1