Questions & Answers

Prime political issue in Great Britain today, even overshadowing the controversy around Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's foreign policy, is the state of the nation's defense preparations. Opposition M. P.s and the anti-Chamberlain Conservative bloc, led by portly, eloquent Winston Churchill, have already blasted from office Viscount Swinton, former Air Secretary, have jarred big, burly Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Coordination of Defense, Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare and his assistant, Geoffrey Lloyd, in charge of air-raid precautions. The harried Prime Minister realizes that a far-reaching revelation of a breakdown in Britain's defense preparations will rock his Cabinet, might even tumble the Government from office.

To keep another attack from the floor of the House, this time on the inadequacy of Britain's antiaircraft units, the Chamberlain Government last week was prepared to go so far as to invoke the dread 1920 Official Secrets Act, intended for espionage cases, against an M. P.

The member concerned was tall, flaxen-haired, scented Duncan Sandys (pronounced Sands), 30-year-old son-in-law of Winston Churchill. Like the Duchess of Atholl (see p. 17) and Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, member of the House of Lords (TIME, July 4), Sandys is a Conservative who has quit the Chamberlain ranks and is now regarded as his father-in-law's voice from the "back benches."

Short time ago, the young M. P. privately questioned Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha about a deficiency of antiaircraft defenses. The War Secretary denied the charge, expressed doubt as to the accuracy of Mr. Sandys' information. Thereupon Sandys drew up a formal question to be asked in the House, as a courtesy submitted the question and his information to the little War Secretary in advance. Shocked was Mr. Hore-Belisha to find that the "information" had come from a secret document drawn up by a top-rank Air officer, which contained emergency directions showing the exact number and positions of guns during the critical German-Austrian Anschluss weekend. Since M. P.s are not allowed to hold active commissions in the regular armed forces, most of them depend on private "leaks" for their inside information.

War Secretary Hore-Belisha hurriedly dumped the case in the lap of the Prime Minister, who advised action by Britain's Attorney-General, Sir Donald Somervell. Early last week the Attorney-General informed Sandys that unless he revealed the source of his information, the Official Secrets Act would be applied, making him liable to a two-year prison sentence. Sandys refused. The Army Council then created a three-man board of inquiry, headed by General Sir Edmund Ironside, governor and commander-in-chief of Gibraltar, which promptly summoned the M. P. to appear for trial.

Instead, Sandys, backed by his father-in-law, carried his case to the floor of the House. The Act, frequently used in the prosecution of spies, has of late been used against newshawks who disclosed petty official secrets, but never has it been extended to a Member of Parliament. Opposition members and Chamberlain Conservatives alike set up a howl that such application of the Act would deprive M. P.s of their centuries-old privileges. Members quoted from thumb-marked copies of the Bill of Rights and the Grand Remonstrance, which the House addressed to Charles I in 1641. "Parliament is supreme!" shouted Liberal Sir Percy Harris.

"The Official Secrets Act was devised to protect the national defense, and ought not to be used to shield Ministers who may have neglected that defense. It ought not to be used to shield Ministers who have a strong personal interest in concealing the truth about that from the country," cried Father-in-law Churchill, who is not out to spare the Government any embarrassment.

The Prime Minister quickly intervened, shrewdly proposed a compromise. The all-party Committee on Privileges would meet to determine whether the Sandys summons constituted a breach of privilege. Meanwhile, the army hearing was to be postponed. The committee, which includes the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, Labor Leader Major Clement R. Attlee and Sir Archibald Sinclair, Liberal leader, in short order decided unanimously that there had been a breach of privilege.

That was not enough for Mr. Churchill. The information Mr. Sandys had originally sought from Mr. Hore-Belisha was not revealed, but the War Secretary was forced to take the floor following the committee meeting and admit that he could not deny it because Mr. Sandys's facts were true. The facts are that the War Office is burdened with obsolete 3-inch antiaircraft guns and is inadequately supplied with the new 3.7-inch weapons, which have proved more effective against air raiders. Mr. Churchill gleefully got all this in the record.

The Prime Minister again hurried to block the attack. This time he announced that a 14-man select committee of the House would take up the case, determine whether the Act can be applied to a Member. During the time the committee is deciding, however, no debate on the subject will be allowed and Mr. Sandys's question will remain officially unanswered. The committee, the Prime Minister hopes, will take three weeks in its investigations. By this time Parliament will be ready for summer adjournment.

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