WOMAN WITH A SECRET

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 2

WOMAN WITH A SECRET

MR SNOWDEN’S BUDGET. CONFIDENCE IN WIFE. CLOSELY' GUARDED MATTERS. The most closely guarded secrets in the world—the contents of Mr Philip Snowden’s Budget—delivered in April 14, were previously in the possession of only eight persons, said the Sunday Express of March 23, and one of them was a woman, Mrs Snowden. Apart from the Chancellor, the others in the great secret were Mr Ramsay MacDonald and five highly-placed officials, including Sir .Warren Fisher and Sir Richard Hopkins. Extraordinary precautions were taken to ensure that not. one whisper of the secret should leak out —clubs and dinners were taboo, and some of the select eight were travelling to town each day by devious routes in order to avoid meeting friends. It was remarked by the writer that it would be a miracle if any of the Budget secrets leaked out before Mr Snowden revealed them to the world in the House of Commons on April 14. Those in the know isolated themselves.

No prominent Treasury officials frequented his club or attended dinners or other functions at this period. Some of them absented themselves from home and took up residence in obscure hotels where their identity was unknown. Others avoided travelling in their accustomed railway trains and arrived at the Treasury by motor-car to avoid being pestered ■ by inquisitive acquaintances. i Mrs Snowden is the first woman for many years who has been entrusted with the secrets. Neither Mr Asquith nor Mr Churchill allowed their wives to have the slightest inkling of what they were going to spring on the House on Budget day. Mr Snowden has not, of course, taken his wife into formal consultation over his problems. But she has known more, at any given time, where he has stood in relation to his difficulties, and what he proposed to do to make his way through them, than any of his associates. Mrs Snowden understands the problems that confront the middle-class housewife to a nicety, and it may be taken that her influence has been Used to induce the Chancellor to meddle as little as possible with his country-women’s shopping basket. Sir Warren Fisher and Sir Richard Hopkins, who shared the secrets, are highly placed Treasury experts. Despite the precautions taken, Budget secrets have sometimes leaked out; a notable instance being the abolition of the tea duty some years ago, which somehow become known beforehand to a select few in Mincing Lane. This year there was particular reason for safeguarding the Budget secrets. The chancellor had to obtain a large sum from sources other than those already tapped. Therefore, each night before leaving the Treasury the trusted officials carefully burned quantities of rough memoranda and notes they had been working on all day so that no trace of anything which might afford clues to the new taxes could reach the outside world too soon.