Marconi scandal

The Marconi scandal was a British political scandal that broke in the summer of 1912. It centred on allegations that highly placed members of the Liberal government under Prime Minister H. H. Asquith had profited by improper use of information about the Government's intentions with respect to the Marconi Company. They had known that the government was about to issue a lucrative contract to the British Marconi company for the Imperial Wireless Chain and had bought shares in an American subsidiary.

Catholic writers led the attack, with Jews as their particular target. The political consequences were in fact slight, but the group around the New Witness drew conclusions about corruption in British politics that resonated for 25 years.

According to some historians, the scandal may have been a Unionist plot to discredit five highly-placed members of a government determined to grant Home Rule in Ireland.

Allegations and rumours centred on insider trading in Marconi's shares and involved a number of government ministers, including Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney General; Herbert Samuel, Postmaster General; and the Treasurer of the Liberal Party, the Master of Elibank, Lord Murray. The allegations included the fact that Isaacs' brother, Godfrey Isaacs, was managing director of the Marconi company.

Historians have explored the degree of anti-Semitism in the allegations. The majority of those accused were not Jewish, and the allegations, whether true or not, were well-founded and serious enough to be brought to public attention. The leaders of the attack had anti-Semitic reputations. Particularly active was the New Witness, edited by Cecil Chesterton. This was a distributist publication founded in 1911 by Hilaire Belloc as Eye-Witness, with Cecil's brother G. K. Chesterton on the editorial staff. It had a Catholic perspective and was accused of anti-Semitism. Historian Frances Donaldson says, "If Belloc's feeling against the Jews was instinctive and under some control, Chesterton's was open and vicious, and he shared with Belloc the peculiarity that the Jews were never far from his thoughts."

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