STATE-OWNED PRESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 8, 2 October 1937, Page 8

STATE-OWNED PRESS

-Fresa Ascoclation.)

Labour Member's Suggestion LIKE "UNCLE SCRIM"

(By Tolegraph-

WELLINGTON, Last Night. "If we are going to save democracy, the Press must be taken from the hanas of private political partisans, ' ' declared Dr. D. G. McMillan (Govt., Dunedin West) in the course of his speech in the House of Representatives to-day. "I believe the Press should be Stateowned," he continuea. "It has misled the people, not so much through leading artieles but through a distortion of faets. I know that through the actions of past Governments the people are suspicious of political eontrol, but as the yeare go on they will come to rely upon it if it is properly administered. 1 would be prepared to see the Press State-controlled and as independent as is our judiciary." Ile went on to deal with ihe valuo.f of the Press as an educational mediuin and an Opposition member interjected, asking whether it would be State-con-trolled like Mr ScrimgeourDr. MeMillan: I know Mr Serimgeour gets under the sk^ns.of jthe Opposition. I know when we cast our minds back two years and remember the activities they employed to get rid of Mr Serimgeour they feel very eore. One aiways feels sore when detected in a particularly miserable action. Mr S. G. Holland (Christchurch North-National): Would there not be any party papers? What about the Labour -paper? Dr. McMillan did not reply to the interjection.