Rumours and allegations had circulated that some financiers had taken advantage of their advance knowledge of a planned Bank rate rise, and so the inquiry primarily sought to establish whether there had been a form of insider trading.
[1] The inquiry attracted some attention in the winter of 1957 as details of the interactions amongst financiers - and between bankers, Bank of England officials, and government figures - became public, shining some light on how the City of London operated.
In order to ensure that the matter was properly investigated, he reported the conversation to the Labour Opposition rather than to his superiors at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
One of these two non-executive directors (Hugh Kindersley) had interests in Lazard, Royal Exchange Assurance, and the British Match Company, which between them had sold £2.5 million of gilts in the two days before the official rate rise announcement.
[2] The proceedings aroused a degree of public interest into what The New Yorker called "a revealing glimpse into a special, jealously guarded world" that involved euphemistic conversations on Scottish grouse moors during shooting parties, cabled messages to Hong Kong, and the casual movement of millions of pounds of securities.
Although the inquiry exonerated all involved, the details of the interactions between private financial institutions, the Bank of England, and the government created quite a public stir.