LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, I beg leave to make a personal statement. For many years I was a business associate of Dr. Fleming, a naturalized British subject who held the controlling interest in Ruths International Accumulators, an engineering company with wide European connections, and I was a director of this company and of its associated British company, Ruths-Arca. The international situation prior to the war damaged the European business and, to assist the company's finances, I waived certain moneys due to me as director's fees and expenses. It was an understanding with Dr. Fleming that he would compensate me in some way for this sacrifice when he was in a position to do so. At the beginning of 1939 I resigned my directorships in the two companies. In September of that year Dr. Fleming asked to see me urgently and explained that certain money due to him was blocked in Czechoslovakia. He pressed me to help and advise him as to how he could make good this claim under the arrangements which were being discussed to satisfy British claimants from certain Czech assets which had been frozen. He had, he told me, every reason to believe that his claim was a good one. From the documents I saw that the claim appeared good and this view was confirmed to me by Sir Stanley Wyatt, of the Czecho-Slovak Financial Claims Office, after the papers had Been investigated.
Dr. Fleming explained that if this claim was successful he would be glad to clear 293 off his old understanding with me. The war had broken out and we discussed some means of safeguarding my position, so that if anything happened to him the trustees of his estate would be entitled to pay me. As a way of satisfying this need we agreed that there should be a letter in which he undertook to pay me 5 per cent. of his claim when the money was paid, but this arrangement would only be in force for one year after which other arrangements would be made. The amount involved so far as I was concerned was not large and I was not in need of money. The total amount represented by the 5 per cent. was rather more than the amount which I would have received if I had not waived my previous claims, though the original sums would have been owing for a considerable period. We consulted a barrister-at-law who advised us that this arrangement was proper.
The first necessity was to find out how these claims could be preferred and what was the right procedure for approaching the Treasury. I asked Captain Crookshank, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to see me, explaining the purpose of my visit, and he was good enough to grant me an interview in the presence of the permanent official concerned. I gave the name of the claimant and explained that I was personally interested because he owed me certain moneys, and that if the claim was paid I should benefit. I did not explain the arrangement in the letter agreeing to pay me a percentage of the claim, as this did not seem to me at the time to be necessary. Captain Crookshank was good enough to arrange for me to see Sir Stanley Wyatt, which I did, together with Sir Stanley's deputy, and I made exactly the same explanation about my personal interest as I did to Captain Crookshank. All the necessary advice was obtained for the preferment of the claim which was duly passed on to Dr. Fleming and his lawyers.
In the only other interview which I had with Sir Stanley Wyatt he told me that he had examined the claim, which seemed sound, but that he would like the opportunity of consulting me about the personal character of the claimant. I explained that Dr. Fleming had been a rich man in Germany, that he had lost his property under the Nazi régime, that he 294 was a good business man and of good repute, and that I was in business with him before the present régime in Germany. Sir Stanley thanked me and said that that was just what he wanted to know and that he would inform me how matters progressed. There were considerable delays, and I wrote one more letter to Captain Crookshank asking for information, again reminding him in writing that I was indirectly interested in this claim. The last I heard of the matter was on July 5, 1940, when Sir Stanley wrote to me explaining that the delay was due to a question of Czecho-Slovak law. The letter agreeing to pay me a percentage expired in September of last year. I did not seek to renew it and took no further steps in the matter.
When the Czecho-Slovakia (Financial Claims and Refugees) Bill came before the House of Lords on January 30, 1940, my noble friend Lord Snell, then Leader of the Opposition, asked me to look after it, and I made a short speech which is in column 448, Volume 115 of the Official Report. When the Special Orders came before the House, I made another very short speech. Both were on the same lines as those which had been taken by my friends in another place, and the arguments were of a general nature. The Bill had already passed through the other place and there was no question of any vote; if there had been I should have disclosed my interest. On reading the report of the Select Committee of Inquiry on the conduct of a member in another place, I appreciated that the drawing up of the letter between Dr. Fleming and myself was capable of a damaging interpretation; and, after consulting my leader and again perusing the papers in this matter, I am taking this first convenient opportunity to make this personal explanation. On reflection I now see that I should have made known to Captain Crookshank the exact nature of my interest when I sought information from him, and that I should have informed your Lordships of my interest in one of the claims when I referred to the matter in the course of business in your Lordships' House. I trust your Lord ships will see fit to accept this personal apology.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (LORD MOYNE)My Lords, the noble Lord was good enough to give 295 me warning that he intended to raise this matter of personal explanation but necessarily no notice could be sent to the rest of the House. Obviously this matter raises unusual issues. The noble Lord referred to the proceedings in another place, but we would have to consider how far his position differs as a Peer from the position of a Minister who is sitting in another place, and I think it would be very desirable for us to look at the Standing Orders and the precedents. I think there is no doubt that the House will do better justice to itself and to the case which the noble Lord has put before it if we avoid any hasty expressions of opinion and adjourn any possible debate which might arise out of this statement until we have had an opportunity of really looking at it in the Official Report. I would then suggest consulting the Leaders of the various Parties in the House with a view to seeing whether any further action is thought to be necessary to satisfy the general opinion of the House.
§ LORD ADDISONMy Lords, I should like to express my concurrence with what the noble Lord the Leader of the House has said. For my part I never heard anything at all about this business until after the meeting of the House yesterday, but it was clearly necessary and right in my judgment that a statement should be made to the House by the noble Lord at the first possible moment: I am sure the wish will be common to us all to maintain the honour and credit of Parliament regardless of any other consideration, and I think that the course suggested by the noble Lord the Leader of the House is, in the circumstances, the right course to adopt to-day.
§ VISCOUNT SAMUELMy Lords, the House will no doubt agree that the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, has taken the right course in making a full disclosure to the House of the matters to which his statement relates, as the subject is clearly one not only of personal but of public importance. No member of the House will be in a position to form any judgment upon that statement until he has read it and reflected upon it. I feel sure that the noble Lord the Leader of the House has taken the right course in suggesting that to-day we should not pursue the matter 296 further but give it our attention and decide on some subsequent date what course it would be right to pursue.