State Secret Betrayed

On his visit to President Hoover, snowy-crested James Ramsay MacDonald created a profound impression, won literally millions of friends by the simple yet often thrilling words in which he voiced love of Peace, devotion to God, and perhaps most moving of all to city dwellers, his deep, countryman's joy in Nature, in "the rushing waters and softly sighing trees of your Rapidan."

Would so poetical, peace-loving a gentleman ever order a "third degree?" The mere notion of such a thing profoundly shocked the Prime Minister's friends last week, but he did give certain orders. As a result ten Scotland Yard detectives entered at about midnight the London home of Citizen John T. Kirk. Frightened Mrs. Kirk saw her husband grilled by the ten, grew frantic while he stubbornly refused to tell something the Prime Minister wished to know, finally became hysterical and by her pleading broke down the resistance of Citizen Kirk, who then told.

Flabbergasting Name. Laborites explained that the means to which Scot MacDonald resorted to satisfy his curiosity were justified by the grave Indian crisis. When three newspapers (London Daily Telegraph, London Daily Chronicle, Manchester Daily Dispatch) let out in advance the state secret that the MacDonald Government had decided to arrest St. Gandhi in India (TIME, May 12) even the cool Scot's nerves jumped.

Beyond a doubt the Viceroy had advised Mr. MacDonald that St. Gandhi must be taken by surprise, lest his arrest lead to violence on the spot, and the Prime Minister had pledged both his own and his Cabinet's word to keep the secret. When it leaked out he saw red, jumped to the conclusion that he must have been betrayed by some disloyal civil servant, invoked the Official Secrets Act, ordered Scotland Yard to get the traitor.

Working fast, the Yard forced Assistant Editor W. O. R. Griffiths of the Daily Chronicle to divulge "under protest" that Parliamentary Correspondent John T. Kirk had ferreted the secret. Routed out and third-degreed, Mr. Kirk at last uttered a name which flabbergasted his ten tormentors, the name of no petty civil servant but that of their superior, His Majesty's Secretary of State for Home Affairs, the Cabinet Minister in charge of Scotland Yard, the Right Honorable John Robert Clynes.

Hot Weather Fade Out. As finally divulged last week, the true story of the leak began with Correspondent Kirk idling near the door from which the Cabinet emerged after making their historic decision. Entering casually into hot weather gossip with statesmen he knew, Mr. Kirk remarked to no one in particular, "I suppose the Cabinet agreed to arrest Gandhi."

An involuntary "Yes" betrayed the secret. But so well did Correspondent Kirk control his features, so unobtrusively did he melt out of the conversing circle, that not even the "betrayer" realized what he had done.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.