COMMENT ON ENQUIRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 February 1928, Page 2

COMMENT ON ENQUIRY.

(Received this day at 9 a.i11.) LONDON, Feb. 28. The “Times” commenting on the civil service inquiry says: “The report will he read with relief.” and adds, “li would not perhaps have been irrelevant if the Board had added that so persistent a state of affairs might have been expected to come under the notice of Gregory’s superiors and Foreign Office.” The “Daily Telegraph” draws attention to the meagreness of the salary of the assistant Under-Secretary of twelve to fifteen hundred a year. Its luoad effect is that no trace whatever can lie found, even by probing into the most unlikely chatter, of any general weakness in the observance of the high traditions of the civil service. There is no question of any instance of the private use of official information.”. The editorial proceeds to condemn most strongly the conduct disclosed. .Mr Ramsay MacDonald in an interview with the “Daily Herald” says:— “The report makes a clear statement that the Zinovieff letter had been for some time in the hands of the Foreign Office and that I had not handled it. It "was untrue, as T said it was. Mr Bridgeman publicly pointed out that the Government had been charged with responsibility for America’s big navy programme. Tt was noticeable it as greatly decreasing and had now almost reached what Britain proposed to Mr Coolidge at the conference at Geneva.