§ Mr. BOOTHThe hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Rupert Gwynne) has put down a question referring to a firm with which I am connected and has given that firm a wrong title. The hon. Member had not the courtesy to inform me that he was going to raise the question. A telegram reached me when I was on my way to Chesterfield to attend the funeral of a late respected Member of this House. The title of the firm is "Haighs (Oldham). Limited." I found that whilst I was chairman of the firm an official then acting as managing director had made wrong returns to the Ministry of Munitions, whereupon I asked him for his resignation, which he gave. I have to inform the House that at the present time that official is suing me in the Law Courts on the ground that from the time I joined the firm until he left it I was endeavouring, during the whole of that period, to get rid of 878 him. Under these circumstances, I can say no more with regard to this naturalised German. Generally, I wish to say that I have been engaged lately, in conjunction with the late Member for Mansfield (Sir Arthur Markham), in unearthing a scheme whereby many German firms were supplying machines to this country before the War, selling them as British, deceiving the Colonies, and capturing 90 per cent, of the trade of Ireland, with a view, no doubt, to having their emissaries all over Ireland. I fully consulted with my deceased friend, and I have been following his advice, but I must now go on with that task alone, and I may have to pay the penalty of a continuance of anonymous letters and scurrilous telegrams to myself, my wife, my friends, and my relatives which are coming from the German community, which we still allow to use our post offices and telegraph stations for such purposes. I ask the House, and every Member of it, to remember that I have to go before a British jury and stand a fight with a man who was in the Prussian Army, and I make the request that I may not be subjected to questions such as this in the House of Commons.
§ Mr. R. GWYNNEI am not going into the case at all; but with regard to the charge of discourtesy, I merely wish to say that when the question was raised in the House last week, in regard to this firm, I was told by somebody that although the question was raised in regard to this naturalised German, there was a Member of the House who was interested in that firm, and who was chairman of the company at the time these shortcomings were discovered. I, therefore, without knowing who it was, put down a question to find out whether it was a fact that a Member of this House was a member of the firm. It was, therefore, impossible for me to inform the hon. Member, as I really was not at all sure who the Member was who was named.
Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKERThis shows that extreme unfairness may occur by an hon. Member putting down questions relating to one of his colleagues in the House without knowing what are the facts. A few days ago Mr. Speaker referred to that 879 matter, and condemned such action on the part of hon. Members. I would appeal to hon. Members to observe the long-standing custom of this House, and to refrain from anything in the nature of insinuations against colleagues.