BAN URGED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 260, 20 January 1941, Page 5

BAN URGED

RADIO ADVERTISING -f SUGGESTION BY MR DOIDGE? ; A suggestionj that information con- \ cerning tlie Rangitane might quite ? easily have been given- to the Ger-man-raiders in what-\vas> apparently •- an innocent radio, broadcast advertisement was made by .Mr F. W.i Doidge, Mi.P., speaking a we'll attended meeting at the Civic The- ' , atre, Tauranga on Tuesday For tiie duration of tlie war, lieadded, the Government might rea.-* sonably consider a ban on '.com*-: niercial broadcasting. .J "Tlie ramifications of Hitler's Fifth Column are world wide," said * - the speaker. "There is not a country on tlie faee of the earth where enemy agents are not active. They , are at work in New Zealand, and we know it." Enemy raiders were in tlie Pacific, and there seemed to be good reason, to believe that not only were there spies at work in New Zealand and Australia, but that they had means of conveying vital information to the raiders concerning the movements of British shipping. If - the suspicions concerning the sinking of the Rangitane were well founded, then the news of her departure from Auckland could only have been conveyed to the raiders by wireless. , In Parliament recently, said Mr Doidge, he had asked why a war regulation concerning philatelists was necessary. The regulation had thrown out of business 20 or SO stamp dealers. The Prime Minister's reply was that stamps interchanged , overseas by collectors had been succsesfully used in the past in espionage work. v Mr Doidge questioned the wisdom of permitting promiscuous advertising over the air in war-time. No easier method of sending out vital information to the enemy could be imagined than that provided by the commercial broadcasting stations*.. No one doubted the vigilance of the authorities, but the most innocent sounding advertisement might in reality be a message in code to the enemy.