with him. In his eyes it was so great a
landmark that as others spoke of events as pre- or post-war, he
divided the political history of England into pre- and post-Marconi.
It meant as much for his political outlook as the Enclosures for his
social. It is necessary to know what happened in the Marconi Case if
we are to understand a most important element in Chesterton's mental
history.

The difficulty is to know what did happen. The main lines of a very
complicated bit of history have never, so far as I know, been
disentangled by anyone whose only interest was to disentangle them:
and the partisans have naturally tangled them more. I wrote a draft
chapter after reading the two thousand page report of the
Parliamentary Committee, the six hundred page report of Cecil
Chesterton's Trial, and masses of contemporary journalism. Then, in
the circumstances I have related in the Introduction, I called in my
husband's aid. The rest of this chapter is mainly his.

I. WHAT THE MINISTERS DID

The Imperial Conference of 1911 had approved the plan of a chain
of state-owned wireless stations to be erected throughout the
British Empire. The Post Office--Mr. Herbert Samuel being the
Postmaster-General--was instructed to put the matter in hand. After
consideration of competing systems, the Marconi was chosen. The
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of London--of which Mr. Godfrey Isaacs
was Managing Director--was asked to tender for the work. Its tender
was accepted on March 7, 1912. The main terms of the tender were as
follows:

The Company was to erect stations in various parts of the Empire at a
cost to the Government of L60,000 per station; these were then to be
operated by the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Dominions
and Colonies concerned; and the Marconi Company was to receive 10% of
the gross receipts. The Agreement was for 28 years, though the
Postmaster-General might terminate it at the end of eighteen years.
But there was one further clause (Clause 10) allowing for termination
_at any time_ if the Government should find it advantageous to use a
different system.

The acceptance of this tender was only the first stage. A contract
had to be drawn up, and nothing would be finalised till this contract
had been accepted by Parliament. In fact the contract was not
completed till July 19. On that day it was placed on the table of the
House of Commons.

For the understanding of the Marconi Case, the vital period is the