CENSORSHIP SYSTEM

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 243, 15 October 1942, Page 2

CENSORSHIP SYSTEM

OPFOSITION CRITTCISM. SUPPRESSION OF NEWS.

P.A.

WELLINGTON, Oct. 15.

The censorship system was attacked by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, when speaking to hisnoconfidence rnotion in the House. He said that after assuming the duties of Minister in Charge of War Expenditure he consulted the Prime Minister and suggested the appointment of a committee of four members, two from the House and two outiders, to study possible economies in war expenditure. He also suggested a second committee to investigate prospective expenditure. That method he thought would give the public confidence and ensure that such monies as subsidies, the cost of munitions and other matter were expended wisely. The Army and Treasury authorities had welcomed the pronosals.

"After seeing the Prime Minister, who had assented to the suggestions, I handea my statement to the press, and was later informed that the censor had prohibited the publication of the names of the committee and the duties for which they were appointed," said Mr Holland. "The censor had overruled the Prime Minister. I am not attacking the individual, but the system which puts a censor over the heads of Ministers and vetoes things which the public should be told. I v/ant to raise my voice in protest qgainst this misuse of the censorship, which is concerned chiefly with p-rotecting the Government frorn criticism." Referring to the recent statement on the censorship by the Newspaper Proprietors' Association, Mr Holland said it only gave a bare hint of the suppression of news being practised in the country. The people were being kept in ignorance and rumourmongering was the result. "When I was invited to join the War Administration," said Mr Holland, "I suggested that a Ministry of Information be set up as I considered our propaganda and news service were probably the poorest in the world. This had not been acted upon. We are treating the people like children, people who are strong enough to stand up and receive unpleasant facts v/ithout flinching." PRIME MINISTER REPLIES.

The Prime Minister said that the War Cabinet from the beginning had been responsihle for the administration of the war finances. Therefore there was no question of defending the Government. The War Cabinet had laid it down that all statements must be submitted to the censor. The censor in a ease like that would not interfere and had never interfered. I-Ie had always given the Prime Minister an opportunity of looking at Ministers' statements whatever they were. Mr Fraser said that he himself never made a statement on any aspect of the war issue without submitting it to the censor. Other members of the War Cabinet, not all of them on the Government side of the House, had considered Idr Holland's statement unfair not to the Government but to the members of the War Cabinet.

Another member oi tne war uaoinet had offered to trim Mr Holland's statement into a form which left no j-eflection on Mr Holland s colleagues. Why did Mr Holland have a complaint? Did he want to stab the Government that he was co-operat-ing with. in the back? ihe censoi had done what he usually did. The attention of the Acting- Prime Minister had been called to the statement by the censor so that it could be isued in a form representing the War C'abinet as a whole. Mr Holland was suffering from a misconception of what his duty was. Why? Was j it because he looked upon himseli not as a representative of the people in the War Cabinet but as a repre-

sentative of certain class interests? The honourable member was under the impression that he was there to look after certain interests. Was there a basis for common action in such an attitude? REGULATION OF NEWS. "Only the editors of the newspapers of this country know the extent to which the news is prohibited and regulated. by the censor," said Mr 1 Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga). "How can any case be judged fairly if the piess is gagged?" ' There were discontent, anxiety and frustration throughout New Zealand, and one ! eause of it was the degree to which news was withheld from the public.