POLICY UNDER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 36, 5 November 1937, Page 3

POLICY UNDER

Mr. Scrimegour had come out .of Inves-j tigations into the innuendos against him with flying .colours, and he (Mr. Savage) had the greatest confidence in| him. Sir Alfred Bansom: Have you confidence in Mr. McArthurf Mr. Savage: No; Mr. McArthur 's activities have been examined yery ' closely. The Prime Minister went on to speak of the co-operative spirit existing in Cabinet and outlined how other Minsters had asaisted him in his duties, instancing the fact that the Minister of Lands was administering native affairs for him. He outlined the procedure adopted in connection with the appointment of the Director of Broadcasting and hi> present position, and said the appointment of .the Controller of the! Commercial Service had been entirelyj a different matter altogether. ,The| Government already had the man they wanted, and it was unnecessary to calll for applications in the latter case. Mr, Savage continued to criticise the publicity given the Government by the Press of tho country and said the Government yas now in a position where it had other means of publicity at its command. Opposition interjection-: You have had good service from the Press. Mr, . Savage: Ycs; too good to be true. . He said he did not wish to say anything in a personal way. about the editorial writers of the Press. Those men were not paid tto sit and .wxite a sermon on the mount. They. were paid to write for the policy of their papers — vested interests. However, he added, he would leave those gentlemen in their editorial sanctums. Mr. Savage said the commercial stations were not there for the purposes of political propaganda, but fo'r a commercial service, .'and _he said there might be the possibility in' future of 'reducing the 25s - license - fee. He also stated .there .'was no'division in- the control oi broadcasting as had been stated by the Opposition.

Bt. Hon. G, W, Forbes, referring to Mr. Scrimegour, said it was the duty of the Prime Minister to see there was no breath of suspicion about any civil servant in the country;- The iPrime Minister had talked about- the innuendos of the Opposition, but there had been no greater innuendos than had been voiced in connection with the jamming incident. Mr. Scrimegour, he said, had broken his undertaking when he had received his license - for the Friendly Boad station not to put political propaganda over the air.. A man who broke such an undertaking ■ was not a man on /whom reliance could be placed, and he considered the- commer^ cial stations would be used-for the disaemination of political propaganda directed against the Opposition at the next election. The Prime Minister, said Mr. Forbes, was very sensitiVe concerning the newspapers. He rejmxnded one of a crayfish which . had shed » its shell. (Laughter). Mr, Forbes considered the Prime Minister had had a yery fair Tun from the papers. \What did he

wantt. asked .Mr. Forbes. . Was it, admiration? He had said if the Government did* not get enough attention from the newspapers, it would. use -other means of publicity. -.That meant it would use the radio. • Mr. A. S. Bichards stated that, while the Prime Minister had' been speaking just a few minutes previously, a fault had, developed in the broadcast. A iiumming sound had developed over the radio, and the broadcast waa transferred to 2YC. As soon as the Prime Minister had ceased speaking the noise had ceased, and the ex-Prime Minister, . Mr. Forbes, had tho advantage of a elear transmission. t Mr. Forbes: I must ■ have fixed - h. . (Laughter.) j The lea'der of the Opposition, Hon. A. Hamilton, rose to a point of order and | asked what the Prime Minister intended to do about the investigation of the fault which had developed. He contended Mr. Bichards had practically made an accusation against the Opposition that someono had interferred with the broadcast. ■ The Opposition. knew nothing about- it, but they wanted to have the matter cleared up, . flnd he

asked the Prime Minister that this' should be done. The Speaker: "I do not think ,the honourable member has made a charge against any member of the House." He proceeded that an investigation could inot be made into the matter at that •stage. Mr. Bichards: I did not make a statement that the interference came from any member of this House or any member of the Opposition. I made no chargos against anyone whatever. I merely stated the fact as it had been reported to the Prime Minister and me. It was merely a statement of fact that the incident had occurred and was made in all good faith. Continuing hjs address he stated the Press of the country enjoyed a very strong position with regard to the charging of high advertising rates, and they were afraid and rightly so of the commercial radio service in which the advertisers had demonstrated they had every confidence. Mr. Bichards thought the qualtiy of the radio service would continue to improve. The Postmaster-General at thia stage said inquiries had been made iuto the failure of the radio during the Prime Minister 's speech. It was learncd that the cause of the fault was a blown fuse at the 2YA station at Titahi Bay.

Sir Alfred Bansom said if the Prime Minister had known as much of Mr. Scrimgeour as did the general public he felt sure Mr., Savage would not have agreed to. his appointment. He did not think the Prime Minister was doing himself justice in failing to agree to the appointment of a Boyal Commission as had been suggested. It left them only to draw the inference that the Prime Minister was afraid of disclosures, which might be made as a result of such a commission and their effeet either on the Government or on Mr. , Scrimgeour himself. If the Prime Minister had nothing to cover up, he saw no reason why he should Tefuse to appoint a Boyal Commission. The Attorney-General, Hon. H. G. B. Mason, said the commercial broadcasting. service was immensely popular, immensely successful and extremely popular among the people of New Zealand, and he wondered at the uolitical

ineptitude of the Opposition, which could go counter to such extent to the , 3uliS1?eil't of the people of this country. Likq the Prime Minister; Mr. Mason said he was convinced of the sincerity of the bontroller of commercial broadcasting.