THE POLICY OF "HUSH."

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2618, 13 November 1915, Page 3

THE POLICY OF "HUSH."

Sir, —As one of the public I wish to protest emphatically against tlie foolish resolutions passed by the Councils of the Dunedin and Wellington Chambers of Commerce being taken and cabled as an expression of opinion by the people of this Dominion. These'resolutions protest against Ashmead Bartlett and other war correspondents' criticism. ,_Do thoso gentlemen on theso, Councils imagine the British Empire is going to win this war by refusing to look _ at. facts and by burying its head ostrichlike in the sand Mr. I. W. Raymond, chairman of tho Hospitality Committee of the War Association, ( Loiidon, N.Z. Executive, said, as reported in Tiie Dominion the other day: ."An insane and wholly fateful policy of hush in the London Press permits and encourages the perpetuation of the. blundering that has gono on." Just so. .. And our • men's lives are being wasted by this blundering, which, according to these few gentlemen of the Chambers of Commerce, no one is to criticise. The censorship in the' Dardanelles has been futile. Tie enemy seems to have known all our projected movements, while we are fed up on glowing and unreliable statements. We are not Germans who need to be gulled with lies in order to keep lip our courage. All we aslc for is the truth and a short shrift witli all blunderers, whoever they may be, from Mr. Asquith downwards.' We must follow tho lead of France and allow 110 mistakes or failures to pass, unpunished. Until we do this we are only playing at war, and uselessly sacrificing the lives of many bravo men.—l am, etc., COMMONSENSE.