Glass-House Garry

THIS MAY BE DYNAMITE! shouted the headline in Britain's trade weekly World's Press News. Beneath it was a scandal-scented story: the press was paying members of the House of Commons for parliamentary and party "leaks." The accusation came from fat, florid Garry Allighan, a Labor M.P. and ex-Fleet Streeter. Some M.P.s, Allighan charged, got cash, some got publicity, some were merely "lubricated into loquacity" around the House bar.

As news editor of the London Mirror, Allighan said he had personally okayed payments to several M.P.s, including one now risen to the Cabinet. As Allighan told it, Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard had been "highly enterprising" about developing leaks, and the most successful.

Parliament's horrified Committee of Privileges promptly launched an inquiry. It was on delicate ground, for there are 46 journalists in the House. Practically all London papers employ paid M.P. contributors, some of whom sign their stuff. (Unlike the U.S. Congress, Parliament by custom permits barrister members to represent clients with political interests; every major union has M.P. officials on its payroll, and Tories and Laborites alike are on well-paying company directorates.) But Allighan's charges about bought-&-paid-for leaks were something different, and highly explosive.

Last week the dynamite exploded--in the face of the man who lit the fuse. After sifting evidence for five weeks, the committee found only two leaking offenders. One had been paid -L-5 a week by Editor Guy Schofield of Lord Rothermere's Evening News; Schofield refused to tell the name. The other was garrulous Garry Allighan himself. He had admitted getting -L-30 a week for passing along confidential information to the "enterprising" Evening Standard.

Charged with "aggravated contempt and gross breach of privilege," Allighan would be lucky to get off with a reprimand from the Speaker. Parliament could, if it wished, suspend him, expel him, or even confine him in the Tower of the House. Herbert Morrison announced to the House that Allighan has gone to South Africa "on medical advice."

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