COMMENT ON SPEECH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1939, Page 7

COMMENT ON SPEECH

WHAT DID LORD STANHOPE MEAN? RESPONSIBILITY OF MINISTERS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, April 5. The Central News Agency, emphasising the extent of the sensation caused by Lord Stanhope’s speech, says that Parliamentarians will want to know what Lord Stanhope meant by his statement. It adds that there is no precedent for the suggestion that a speech publicly made by a member of the cabinet should not be reported. "Members of the cabinet,” says the agency, “are supposed to speak with a due sense of responsibility, and it is assumed that what they think proper to say publicly may be conveyed to a wider audience. “It is quite unique in British public life that a member of the cabinet, speaking in such circumstances, should be regarded as having said something which ought not to be published. That such a situation has arisen must inevitably raise the question of Lord Stanhope’s future in the Government.” The news agencies stated that the officers were absent because of the fleet exercises. There is nothing in the international situation at present which would justify exceptional measures. The Admiralty stated that all ships at present in port have half their complements on leave, and they are not being recalled There is no intention at the moment of mobilising the fleet’s reserve.