§ 4.0 P.M.
§ Captain LOSEBYOn a point of personal explanation. A series of questions were asked in this House on Thursday last, which, in the opinion of some of my hon. Friends, contain a clear suggestion that I have personally acted improperly in the matter which culminated in the Ministry of Munitions Inquiry. As the circumstances are peculiar and I am not in a position to reply to any such suggestion either on the Floor of the House or in the Press, you have been kind enough to allow me in a few sentences to explain the position. I do so, not because I care anything about my own position, but rather out of fairness to certain witnesses who gave evidence before that inquiry, and because I hope that the matter may now be finally closed. This is the position. At the request of the House, a certain tribunal was set up. That tribunal was exactly in the form for which I asked. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House was kind enough to meet me in this matter as he did in all other matters in relation to that inquiry. The terms of reference also were amended to contain the exact words for which I asked. The tribunal met, and before that tribunal I presented with all the vigour of which I was capable the available evidence. The tribunal was presided over by a judge of the High Court, and it has now given its findings. It would be as unfair as it would be improper for me to endeavour in any kind of way to re-open the matter. Of course, I loyally accept the findings of that tribunal. It is impossible for me to reply in any kind of way so far as my own bona fides in the matter are concerned without re-opening 1103 it, and it is in order that I might say that, and in order that I may not appear to be acquiescing in the suggestion, that you have been kind enough to allow me to say these few sentences. I may have been quite wrong, but I thought that I was right.