§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has considered the question as to whether any change should be made in the relations of the Government with the Bank of Ireland, in which the Government accounts are kept, and of which the late Treasury Remembrancer in Dublin Castle became a director while still holding that office, and which is given a preference in dealings by the 1509 Government to other banking institutions in Ireland, regard being had to the decision in the action of Alderman Corrigan against Mr. Edward R. Read, as chairman of the late National Assurance Company of Ireland, which was heard in Dublin in June last before Mr. Justice Andrews and a special jury, and to the fact that the National Assurance Company, four of whose directors are also directors of the Bank of Ireland, was accommodated by overdrafts up to £90,000 by the Bank of Ireland, by which the directors were enabled to conceal its true position and to postpone its winding-up, to the ruin of the shareholders; and whether he has considered the effect likely to be produced on public confidence in commercial probity by revelations of so grave a character making no alteration in the attitude of of the Government to the Bank of Ireland, as a favoured institution for Government accounts or business.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI have nothing to add to the Answers which I have already given to similar Questions put down by the hon. Member for the 6th and 8th instant.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLDoes the right hon. Gentleman admit the fact that four directors of the Bank of Ireland were likewise directors of this fraudulent company, and does he admit the Government give a preference in all money transactions to this bank?
§ MR. JAMES CAMPBELL (Dublin University)May I remind the right hon. Gentleman——
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order. The right hon. Gentleman is giving information, not asking for it.
§ MR. JAMES CAMPBELLMay I ask whether it is a fact——
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLOn a point of Order, Mr. Speaker, is it usual for counsel employed in a case to use the information he has received as counsel?
§ *MR. SPEAKERI do not think it is at all desirable that counsel who has been employed should take any part.
§ MR. JAMES CAMPBELLAs a matter of personal explanation, may I say that my interest was on behalf of the plaintiff, in whose interests this Question is put. I simply rose in the interests of fair play to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he was aware that the facts of this case are still sub judice?
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEI think there is an appeal. I am not clear whether it is a question of fact or a question of law, but it makes it undesirable that I should give any answer which would prejudice the case one way or the other.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLDoes the right hon. Gentleman know that the questions of fact are undisputed and that the appeal is on a question of law?
§ MR. J. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the £90,000 was advanced by the Bank of Ireland out of the unclaimed balances?
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLFinancial morals in Ireland.