§ 46. Mr. KINGasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the Secretary to the Ministry of Information is, or was, a director of seven public companies, one of the directors of American propaganda a director of six companies, the director of Swiss propaganda a director of nine com- 910 panies, and the director for Asia and the Far East a director of thirty-seven companies; whether these four gentlemen with fifty-nine directorships will be, or have been, asked to resign their directorships in order to devote their whole energies to their national work; and, if not, whether these directorships are understood to be held no longer in an active capacity?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThe Secretary to the Ministry of Information is Mr. Harold Snagge, who is a director of Barclay's Bank and of various commercial undertakings. With regard to the other gentlemen referred to in the question, they are, so far as I am aware, active directors of various companies. They give voluntary assistance to the Ministry as advisers and supervisors of propaganda in the countries of which they happen to have very special knowledge. I am informed that in some cases this service occupies the whole day; in other cases only part of the day; but in every case the advice and supervision by men who have executive ability and special knowledge of foreign conditions are of the greatest assistance to the Ministry. In these circumstances, I see no reason for taking the course indicated in the question.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLAre these gentlemen Civil servants or are they Ministers of the Crown? If they are Civil servants they are precluded from holding directorships. If they are Ministers of the Crown it has been the invariable rule since Sir Henry Campbell's time that they should not hold them?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThey are neither.
§ Mr. McNEILLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that he would be well advised if he would try to remove the impression that his Ministry—
§ Mr. PRINGLEIs it an inappropriate designation to describe a gentleman who is secretary to a Ministry as a Civil servant?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWNo, I do not think he is a Civil servant in the ordinary sense. He is, like many others, giving his services, as he thinks, for the country.
§ Mr. BONAR LAWNo, he is not paid, I believe.
§ Mr. MacNEILLHave not these gentlement the disposal of public funds with which, if they choose, they can promote the interests of their companies?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWNo, I do not think they have the disposal of public funds at all. The object for which they are put there is to control expenditure and not to authorise it.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe question had better be raised in the Debate.