FOREIGN OFFICE SCANDAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 290, 28 February 1928, Page 9

FOREIGN OFFICE SCANDAL

Severe Disciplinary Action SPECULATORS IN CURRENCY SEVERE disciplinary measures are to be taken against the three officials of the Foreign Office concerned in the scandal arising from gambling in foreign currency. The Board of Inquiry’s report has been published. of the hoard are glad to observe that, though certain offences are serious from a service point of view there was no question of corruption or misuse of official information. As the restilt of the board’s findings, Mr. AY. D. Gregory, an Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, will be dismissed from the service. Another official. Mr. Owen O’Malley, has been permitted to resign. Mr. H. F. B. Maxse was severely reprimanded and forfeits three year's seniority. The report states that there are no grounds for attaching suspicion to Gregory for complicity in the publication of the Zinoreff letter. British "Wireless —Press Assn. — Copyright

As a result of the board’s findings, , Mr. W. D. Gregory, an Under-Secre-1 tary of the Foreign Office, will be dis- j missed from the service. Another | official, Mr. Owen O’Malley, has been permitted to resign. Mr. H. F. B.! Maxse was severely reprimanded and forfeits three years’ seniority.. The report states that there are no grounds for attaching suspicion to Gregory for complicity in the publication of the Zinovieff letter. Reed. 12.45 p.m. LONDON, Monday. The report of the Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate certain statements affecting civil servants made in the recent law case of Ironmonger versus Dyne, was laid in the House of Commons to-night. Accompanying it was a minute stating that the Prime minister and the Foreign Secretary, having carefully considered the report, “are glad to observe that, serious as

sponsibility, and if he had to act again he would do the same. Sir Austen Chamberlain told a questioner that the exhibition of the German film “The World Through German Spectacles” was prohibited in occupied territories by the Rhineland High Commissioner. “UTTERLY UNTRUE” ADVISER’S VERSION DENIED I SHOOTING SCENE DESCRIBED British Wireless —Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON,. Monday. Mr. Wilcox, producer of “Dawn,” replying to Sir Austen Chamberlain, denies supplying the Government with the details described. He said they do not form part of the film and were never taken. He met the adviser only once, when he unofficially visited the studio without making any reference to “Dawn.” On that occasion he saw certain scenes. “The actual firing-party scene,” he said, “showed the firing-party drawn up in readiness and Rammeler’s refusal to shoot. The officer was shown stepping forward, but the actual shooting is not shown. ‘‘The picture merely reflected the expression of Nurse Cavell, who faints. The firing-party is brought to order, and as the officer moves from the side the firing-party scene is transferred to the Lutheran chaplain’s face, his expression indicating what occurs. “Thereafter the scene dissolves to a line in Rupert Brooke’s poem, ‘Some corner of a foreign field which is forever England,’ which dissolves into Nurse Cavell’s grave. “The firing-party does not fire over her head, and the officer does not give the coup-de-grace. The shooting is not shown and it is utterly untrue.”

were the offences in certain cases, from the service’s point of view, no question of corruption or of the use of official information occurred in any one of them.”

As a consequence of the findings, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has directed that H. D. Gregory be dismissed from the service; that I Owen O’Malley be permitted to resign, and that Lieut.-Commander Maxse be severely reprimanded and forfeit three years’ seniority. The board came to the conclusion that while Gregory, O’Malley and Maxse neither used nor endeavoured •: to use any official information for the purpose of their transactions, such transactions ought never to have been undertaken by civil servants, least of I all by those to whom, from the nature j of their w r ork, the sensitiveness and suspicions of foreign countries, with re- \ gard to such dealings in their cur-1 rencies, cannot have been unfamiliar. The action of these three offi- ! cials, in the view of the board, was inconsistent with their obligations as civil servants. The second part of the report deals with the question of whether other civil servants have been engaged in similar transactions. In two specificcases, officials had volunteered statements to the board regarding past investments. The view is expressed on the impropriety of their actions which, however, bore no resemblance, except in form, to the systematic operations of the other three officials mentioned, and the board is satisfied that no question had arisen of inside information having been used. The third section of the report deals with the allegation that, to serve his own financial ends, Gregory had manipulated the publication of the Zinovieff letter and note to the Soviet Charge d’Affaires. Regarding it. after a careful analysis of all the circumstances and events regarding that episode, the conclusion reached is that not the slightest foundation exists for attaching suspicions to Gregory. In fact, the report shows that Gregory, in departmental minutes, advised against the publication of the documents. Moreover, the face that they were published had no effect upon the course of foreign exchanges. Dealing with the position of civil servants generally the report concludes:—

“The public expects from them a standard of integrity and conduct, not only inflexible, but fastidious, and has not been disappointed in the past. We are expressing the view of the service when we say the public has a right to expect that standard, and that it is the duty of the service to see that this expectation is fulfilled.”—A. and N.Z.

The Foreign Office scandal arose from an action brought by Ironmonger and Co., bankers, against Mrs. Amanta Bradley Dyne, in which it came out that three officials of the Foreign Office had been gambling in French currency. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, at once ordered an inquiry to be held. The three officials concerned were Mr. W. D. Gregory, Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office; Commander H. F. B. Maxse; another Under-Secretary; and Mr. Owen O’Malley, a first secretary in 1924, who, las year, as Counsellor to the Embassy in Peking, negotiated the Hankow agreement, with Mr. Eugene Chen, the then Nationalist Foreign Secretary.