OFFICIAL SECRETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1938, Page 7

OFFICIAL SECRETS

BRITISH M.P. SEEKS GUIDANCE COMMITTEE BEING FORMED. (Recd This Day, 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, June 28. The Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain, stated in the House of Commons that a select committee was being formed to inquire into the question regarding the Official Secrets Act raised by Mr'D. Sandy’s, member for Norwood. A British official wireless message states that a request by Mr Sandys to the Speaker in the House for guidance on the question followed an interview he had with the Attorney-General (Sir Donald Somervell). He had forwarded to the Secretary for War the draft of a question he proposed to put on the Order Raper, the contents of which he was later informed by the Attorney-General were held by the War Office to indicate disclosure of secret information. The purpose of the interview, according to the Attorney-General’s statement in the House was to inform Mr Sandys, who was thought to be unaware of the breach of the Official Secrets Act involved, -and to put the legal position before him and to ask him if he was prepared to assist in tracing the disclosure by revealing the sources of his information. According to Mr Sandys’s statement, it appears that he considered Sir Donald Somervell’s request as a threat of proceedings under the Act. In a subsequent interview and by an exchange of letters the Attorney-General indicated that there had been misapprehension and that there was no intention of enforcing against the member for Norwood the powers of interrogation under the Official Secrets Act. Mr Sandys, however, decided to raise the matter in the House as a question concerning not merely himself, but equally all members of Parliament, and it was decided that the position should be clarified without delay.