CORRUPTION CHARGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1943, Page 4

CORRUPTION CHARGE

AGAINST HIGH BRITISH OFFICIALS AND FORMER NEW ZEALANDER AIRCRAFT CONTRACT & ALLEGED BRIBERY (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 18. A former Aucklander, Rex Morley Hoyes, who arrived in London in 1931 representing Matahina Forests, and who married Lady Waleran in 1935, figures in a Bow Street Police Court case. As managing director of Dun-liffe-Owen Aircraft, Limited, he is accused of corruptly making gifts of £l,OOO and £2OO to Harold Lavers Armstrong, Director-General of Aircraft Production at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and to Henry George Bloss, Deputy Director-General of Aircraft Production, who are summoned respectively for accepting such gifts. The prosecutor said that when it was proposed to increase the production of Seafires, Armstrong and Bloss recommended the Hoyes Company, which got a £1,250,000 contract on January 15 for making 250 Seafires. While negotiations were going on, Armstrong received two cheques for £5OO and one for £2OO. Armstrong repaid Hoyes on March 3. Hoyes, when seen next day by Superintendent- Burt, threatened to have the matter raised in the House of Lords. At another interview he got very excited and said he would see the Prime Minister. Eloss, when questioned, buried his head in his hands and • said; "I see I have been trapped. What a fool I am. I thought I was wise. I can see through it all now. I will help you all I can.” Armstrong, in an alleged statement, said he had been in financial difficulties over his income tax. The hearing was adjourned to November 3.