PUBLICITY BAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 16 October 1942, Page 3

PUBLICITY BAN

ACTION MINISTER EXPLAINS STRIKES AND SHORTAGES (P.R.) WELLINGTON, this day. Why the Director of Publicity controlled newspaper, references to the Waikato strike and mention of shortages of commodities were explained to the House of Representatives last night by the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. He was answering Mr F. W. Doidge (Nat., Tauranga), who had stated that an emphatic condemnation of the VVaikato miners by the Hon. R. Semple at a largo public meeting in Tauranga had never appeared m the newspaper report and that the editor explained that he was prohibited from mentioning that subject. Mr Doidge had characterised this as a “complete black-out. ” Mr Sullivan denied that the action taken by the Director of Publicity amounted to a black-out. He had the confidential telegram sent by that officer to the newspaper editors. It read: “To assist in localising the serious coal dislocation and to ensure the speediest return to full production, the assistance of the press is necessary to prevent the extension of trouble. There must be no publication of reports of meetings, resolutions, or statements, in support of the unlawful strike, or any statements supporting or condemning tlie strikers without reference to the Director of Publicity.’’ “The Gag”

Air Doidge: It was the gag. Air Sullivan said it was a direction to editors that they must submit the question to the director in order to ensure that the trouble, which was already sufficiently bad in the Waikato and was creating difficulty for the country, was not accentuated by the publication of matter which would intensify the difficulty. It was not a prohibition of publication and a great deal of matter was published throughout the length and breadth of the country. There was nothing to prevent an editor from publishing the statements of the Alinister of Transport. . .... He had noticed that the criticism of censorship by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association had been referred to with approval by the Leader of the Opposition. Reference had been made to the fact that the newspapers were prohibited from publishing references to commodity shortages. The Minister read the direction issued to the press declaring that this was necessary to prevent panic buying which followed every reference to a scarcity, whether the report was correct or not. Hoarding of Sugar A certain group of grocery stores which had a normal demand for 25 tons of sugar a week sold 25 tons in One day following press references to the shortage and in the week following the entry of Japan into the war this group sold as much sugar in one morning as their normal sales for a week. The same quantities of sugar were available as in the previous year, but there were hoards in existence. However, the sugar position to-day had entirely changed and there was a shortage in the country. Air Sullivan finally stressed the point that whenever ' there was any reference to a shortage of any commodity the tendency of the public was to buy to the limit of their capacity. A reference to the censorship issue was also made by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. He said he believed that the question of censorship could with advantage be reconsidered altogether. It was always a matter of opinion as to how much it was wise to divulge, but the main point was to see that information that might be of advantage to the enemy did not get out. If there was doubt, he was sure that the Prime Alinister was open-minded enough to make certain of what the complaints really were. Ho could not see that the censorship became a matter of a no-confidence motion.