Evening star., 1938-07-02
Free Speech Under Big Ben.

Free Speech Under Big Ben.
Shades of King John and the Barons
at Runnymede are conjured up these
days as the House of Commons echoes
to bitter discussion of Parliaments right
to untrammeled debate, even on the
delicate subject of national defense.
The proposal to court-martial a Con-
servative member, Duncan Sandys, on a
charge of possessing highly confidential
military secrets regarding Britains pro-
lection against continental air attack,
mas revived the centuries-old struggle be-
tween Parliament and the crown over
the issues of free speech and free press.
Three leading members of the cabinet,
Prime Minister Chamberlain, War Sec
retary Hore- -Belisha and Attorney Gen.
eral Sir Donald Somervell, are the storm
centers OF a controversy which. before it
runs its embattled course may jeopardize
the existence of the Chamberlain gov
ernment. Charged with taking refuge in
the Ofiicial Secrets Act to hide their
failure to provide sufficient modern anti
aircraft artillery to ward of a German
or Italian offensive, the Tory govern
ment faces an opposition phalanx of
Labor, Liberal and Conservative NAL
contents captained by Winston Churchill,
who palpably relish so spectacular an
opportunity to bring about the downfall
OF the regime already under heavy fire
because of its policy of dealing with the
relationships.
Mr. Sandys whose chief distinction is
that his father-in-law is the irrepressible
and impetuous Winston" secured.
under circumstances which he refuses to
divulge, discriminating evidence that
Britain is seriously short of guns capable
OF repelling either Goerings or Musso-
lins bombing planes Holding that
such information could only have been
obtained through violation of the
Secrets Act, it was first proposed to hale
Sandys, commissioned officer of the
Territorial reserve, before a military tri-
bunal. Promptly he raised the issue of
his parliamentary prerogative to interpo-
late the government on national defense
questions and prepared to question War
Secretary Hore-Belisha in Commons on
the basis of the facts within the MEM
bers knowledge. Hore -Belisha warned
Sandys privately that if he persisted he
would be liable to two years imprison-
ment under the law unless he named
the army officer who was his informant.
This the M. P. stubbornly declined to do,
whereupon Mr. Chamberlain elected to
refer the incident to a select parliament
tary committee for complete investiea-
ton.
The parliamentarians have apparently
won the first round against the war Office
in what may become a decisive battle
to determine whether the Commons and
the press have the right to make un-
trammeled use of whatever official in
formation comes their way, or whether
oureaucrats. in times of peace may i'm
pose wartime censorship. 1t has fallen
to the lot of Sandys' father-in-law. Mr..
Churchill, to state most effectively the
case against the crown. The Oficial
Secrets Act" thunders that stormy petrel
OF Westminster. who often pictures him
self as Britain's next Prime Minister,
was devised to safeguard the national
defense, and ought not to be used to
shield ministers who have neglected that
defense. Nor ought it to be invoked to
protect ministers who have a strong
personal interest in concealing the truth
about that from the country"
In the second year of the World War
Lord Northcliffe, the famous gadfy of
Fleet street, risked being sent to the
Tower of London for exposing in his
Daily Mail that the national idol, Lord
Kitchener, was starving" the British
Army in France of the right kind of
shells. The result of that historic exhi-
bition Of free speech in free press was
the creation of the ministry of munitions
under Lloyd Georges dynamic direction
and the subsequent and regular supply
Of shells and guns that enabled "the con-
temptible little British Army" of the
Kaiser's Imagination to play a mighty
part in breaking the Hindenburg Line
and turning defeat on the western front
into victory.