RIGHT OF INQUIRY ‘MUST BE KEPT’

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 16

RIGHT OF INQUIRY ‘MUST BE KEPT’

Security Director’s View Of Spy Affair

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 24.

The Security Service had taken steps to prevent future spying allegations at universities, the director of the Security Service (Mr H. E. Gilbert) said today.

However, the service must retain its right to instruct its staff to make enquiries if there was reason to believe that a matter related to Communist or Communist-front activities or to the possibility of espionage, he said.

“It is appreciated that university authorities and also Security Service officers can be placed in a difficult position if a member of the service—while studying at university—is instructed to make enquiries,” he said.

Mr Gilbert said an unfortunate aspect of the Auckland University “affair” was that the service had been exposed to public attacks based on exaggerated, and false claims and premises. “In denial of the basic ‘spying’ charge it is categoric-! ally stated that there has] been no inquiry made at a university or ‘investigation’ at a university that could be interpreted as a threat to academic freedom," he said.

“No reports have been solicited or submitted on statements by staff or students at lectures, seminars, tutorials or student forums.

“The Security Service has! no interest in day-to-day staff! or student activities,” said Mr! Gilbert. The Security Service was set up by the Government in: 1956 to protect the country against subversion and 1 espionage, whether directed! from within or outside New Zealand. “The service does not apologise for recognising as its main target the Communist Party of New Zealand and its fringe associated bodies and sympathisers,” he said. “But it should be noted that it is also concerned with other subversive activities such as neo-fascism.”

Purpose Defensive Mr Gilbert said the Security Service followed the pat-

tern of Ml 5, and was defensive in purpose. “The service is an independent, civilian advisory body wihtout police powers of arrest and search and maintains links with its counterparts in other Commonwealth countries and in certain foreign countries with which New Zealand has treaty links or special associations,” he said.

i “In its counter-subversive work the service is obliged to concern itself with the ! activities of organisations and individuals which pose a threat to our democratic system of government It has as I its task in this respect the detection of such activities, their investigation and their analysis.” He said proof that espionage occurred in New Zealand was the case of two Russian diplomats who were expelled in 1962.

Subversion Exposed

Further instances not generally known included the detection of the intensive cultivation by a Russian diplomat of a small number of university students in Wellington with the aim of infiltrating the Department of External Affairs.

“A timely warning to the innocent students concerned was sufficient to reveal to them the covert intentions behind this move,” said Mr Gilbert. Mr Gilbert said a major task of the service was checking persons such as Government servants and members of the armed forces who could be employed on secret work.

Requests for vetting were not initiated by the Security Service, he said. “They come from Government departments or the armed services concerned.”

Subjects Told Most of the requests were for checks on persons who might have access to secret material.

“In these cases the names submitted are simply checked against the records of the service. Only a very small percentage of these checks discloses any adverse information and if no such information is revealed the inquiry is returned to the originator and no record is retained by the service,” he said. Inquiries were made with the co-operation and knowledge of the person being checked. “Public servants have a right of appeal against an adverse decision by the employing authority,” he said.

“One function of the service often overlooked is its assistance to the Government in refuting allegations of communism in cases where such charges are ill-founded.”