Spying On Students

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 16

Spying On Students

Sir, —“Millicent Sproggs” should not be surprised if spying is going on at all our universities, not only by our own security forces but probably by agents of other friendly countries also. In 1949 I was questioned by a member of Parliament about another exserviceman member of the University Labour Club at Canterbury. The questions were sympathetic, but I was shocked at the mass of intimate personal detail said to be on record in the Prime Minister’s Department Those who have read ‘The Invisible Government,” by Wise and Ross, will realise that there is no retreat from the security dilemma. To enjoy democracy we must now accept -the negation of privacy and freedom of speech, and the knowledge that our neighbour may be forced to denounce us at any moment either for gain or for mere self-protection.— Yours, etc., VARIAN J. WILSON. June 7, 1966.

Sir, —Why should Mr Holyoake be forced to apologise because a student was instructed to report on Communist activities in our universities? Surely we owe something to our servicemen risking their lives overseas. Of one thing we can be certain. True to their traditions, the Labour Opposition will continue to furiously oppose and frustrate every attempt to curb or expose Communist activities here in New Zealand—Yours, etc., 1.C.8. June 7, 1966.