AIR SECRETARY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 299, 2 December 1936, Page 8

AIR SECRETARY

RECENT DISMISSAL “IMPROPER DISCUSS!!)NS.” SIR C. BULLOCK’S REPLY. LONDON, Aug. 19. fhe dismissal of Sir Christopher Bullock, permanent secretary to the Air Ministry, by the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, and the reasons for that decision, caused both surprise and regret. So high stand the traditions of the Civil Service, and so jealously and honourably are they observed that any stain or tarnish is felt almost as a national wound. Much relief was expressed, therefore, at the Prime Minister’s statement that “grave as was the offence from a service point of view, no questieon of corruption was involved,” together with the assurance by fhe Board of Inquiry that the “improper discussions” in which Sir Christopher Bullock persisted “have not influenced the negotiations for the projected contract between departments of State and Imperial Airways or the general relat’ons between those departments and the company.”

THE ALLEGATIONS MADE. The action by the Prime Minister followed upon the findings of a Board of Imiuiry appointed to investigate certain conversations between Sir Christopher and representatives of Imperial Airways concerning the possibility of his future association with that company. The report stated that these conversations by Sir Christopher were imp-oper in a Civil Servant. The allegations were based upon interviews between Sir Christopher and Sir Eric Geddes, chairman it Imperial Airways, and Mr. WoodsHumphrey, the managing director, during the negotiations for the contract between the Government and Imperial Airways. In the interviews with Sir Eric Geddes, it is stated, Sir Christopher pointed out that he had no prospect of further advancement in the Civil Service; said he would like to succeed Sir Eric Geddes as chairman of Imperial Airways, and suggested that he might get himself nominated as one of the two Government directors on the Board, as a step to the chairmanship. Sir Eric Geddes, It is stated, was much disturbed by these ’onversations, and reported them to Mr. Woods-Humphrey,, and another colleague on the Board.

OPINIONS OP BOARD. While the Board .of Inquiry do°s not criticise Sir Christ cipher’s desire to link his future with Imperial Airways, it thinks the special and intimate relations existing between the Air Ministry and the company mad?, it “intrinsically improper for him to initiate conversations with its chairman or any other representative of the company in furtherance of that desire.” “We think,” it states, “that the whole course of these proceedings shows on the part of Sir Christopher a lack of that instinct and perception from which is derived the sure guide by which theSconduct of a Civil Servant should be regulated.” Upon the day that Sir Christopher’s dismissal was announced a letter from him, replying to the the Prime Minister’s decision, was published in conjunction with the report of the Board of Inquiry. In it he said: “It would be both churlish and unprofitable to challenge the main findings of fact (or rather attempted (econstructions of conversations) by ’he recent Board of Inquiry, which* showed me patience, consideration, and Impartiality. If the report contains a few statements which I maintain are incorrect and, in consequence, some observations which are ito my thinking), scarcely fair; it, indeed,-at one or two points the draftsman’s pen has a barb, fault no doubt lies with my inadequate elucidation in the later stages of galling and wearisome proceedings with which 1 had to cope-single-handed

MAIN OUTLINES UNDISPUTED. “I have not disputed the main outlines of the conversations,” added Sir Christopher. "Given certain not unimportant additions and omissions and a few changes of phraseology (more particularly in the case of the last two conversations) they accord broadly with my own recollection. “I do not seek to burke responsibility for consequences which have flowed from my own actions. But it is easy to be wise after the event; and fortunate is he —be he politician, sailor, soldier, airman, journalist, or Civil Servant —who can honestly say that, if every private and informal conversation he has held were sifted and resifted months, even years, afterward in the rarefied atmosphere of a solemn and forma! inquisition, no passing phrase uttered in an unguarded moment could but be held injudicious, no word or deed be called in question in some degree by absolute standards of taste or prbprietry.”