CLOUD OVER LOBBY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26622, 19 November 1947, Page 5

CLOUD OVER LOBBY

PENDING BUDGET INQUIRY Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 18. Declaring that the inquiry into the facts behind the Budget leakage will be in the public interest and in the interests of all parties concerned, The Times in a leader says the principle at stake was defined by Mr Attlee Jn his letter accepting Mr Dalton’s resignation as “ the inviolability of the Budget,” and-that is a principle accepted without question by responsible journalists no less fhan by members of Parliament.

- Mr Dalton’s integrity and good faith are not in question, The Times says, but until air the facts are publicly put on record an ugly cloud affecting politicians and journalists alike will hang over the Parliamentary lobby where there is a long and honourable tradition of mutual confidence built up by generations of Ministers and Parliamentary journalists. The practical everyday implications of this relationship, The Times points out, are well understood by both sides. There are limits to what a Minister should say even “ off the record,” and equally there are limits to what a newspaper should publish; even of what it knows to be the truth. These limits were somehow, and in manner without * precedent, overstepped last Thursday, and the honour of Parliament, including journalists who work there, demands a thorough public investigation.