SIR STUART SAMUEL, M.P.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1723, 14 April 1913, Page 5

SIR STUART SAMUEL, M.P.

MUST RESIGN HIS SEAT. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright London; April 11. The Privy Council has decided that Sir Stuart Samuel, M.P. for Whitechapol, must resign, as a result of the finding of.-. the Select Parliamentary Committee set up to inquire into the propriety of his retaining';, his seat in the House of Commons, in view-of the purchases of silver mado for the India Office through the firm of Samuel, Montagu, and Co., in which he is a partner. He will recontest the seat. Captain 8., M. Browne (Unionist), who stood at the last General Election, will be his opponent. LIABLE TO FINES OF £46,500. .(Rec. April 13,. 5.5 p.m.) London, April 12. 'It is understood that the Government will introduco a Bill of indemnity to relieve Sir Stuart Samuel of his liability, to fines amounting to .£<16,500 for illegally' participating in divisions, FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS FOR EVERY VOTE. Sir- Stuart Samuel is liable to -a fine of =£500 for every division in which ho has voted since his firm entered into tho contract with the India Office. Nearly nine millions sterling of India's cash balances are on loan to various approved borrowers and banks in London;,of tho gold standard reserve, nearly sixteen millions aro, invested in securities in London, and over a million is on loan at short notice. Mr. Touche, M.P., has explained in the "Morning Post" that Indian merchants have a long-stanijing grievance against tho transference to London of theso \ very large sums of money, for no very obvipus purpose except the advantage of the London firms concorned. ' It is stated that no silver has been bought since 1907 until this year, and on this occasion was purchased throug'n Messrs. Samuel. Montagu and Co., a firm through|'which no transactions of the sort had ever previously been made. The explanation offered oy Mr. Baker for the -sudden employment of a new firm is that there had been tho prospect of a speculative risd in the price of silver against the Government, and that this was avoided by the employment of Messrs. Samuel Montagu and Co. - lii view of the fact that the head of the firm in question is the brother 'of tho Under-Secretary for India, the - "Spectator" has no hesitation in saying that tho Government should have preferred to lose the chalice of a slightly better bargain rather, than risk tho inferences which wero only too likely to be drawn from the facts disclosed. ,