75. Mr. DOYLEasked the Home Secretary whether he is in a position to give the number of Soviet committees established in South Wales, in Glasgow and Scotland generally, and the industrial centres of England; if there are very strong bodies of the same at Slough motor depôt; and what steps, if any, are being taken to ascertain and make public the source whence the funds are derived to carry on the active propaganda disclosed during a recent trial, when certain Irish Guardsmen admitted to having received various sums of money from a Bolshevist agent who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment?
§ Mr. SHORTTI would refer the hon. Member, as regards his first point, to the reply which I gave to his question of the 13th May last. There are, or were, a few extremists employed at Slough, but they could not be described as constituting a Soviet. The funds employed for improper purposes in the case referred to in the last part of the question amounted to a few pounds only, and there is no evidence that the person who distributed them was a Bolshevist agent.
§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHYMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he puts the existence of extremists at Slough down to the evidence of waste and muddle by this Government?
§ Mr. SHORTTNo, Sir; I am not responsible for that.