NEWS CENSORSHIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 16 October 1942, Page 5

NEWS CENSORSHIP

i STRIKE AND COMMODITY SHORTAGES | MR SUM,IVAN’S EXPLANATION I From Our Own l'!ii hamcrilary Kcp.ucr) j Wellington, This Day. Reasons why the Director of Publicity, Mr J. T. Paul, 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, Mr Sullivan. He was answering Mr F. W. r Doidge (National, Tauranga) who , bad stated that an emphatic coni' demnation of the Waikato miners by Mr Semple at a large public meeting in Tauranga had never appeared in the newspaper report and that . the editor explained that he was \ prohibited from mentioning that subject- Mr Doidge 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 read a ' confidential telegram sent by that | officer .to newspaper editors: “To as- : sist in localising the serious coal dislocation and to ensure the speediest return to full production, the assistance of the Press is necessary. To prevent extension of the trouble . there must be no publication of the i reports of meetings, resolutions or statements in support of the unlawful strike, or any statements sup- . porting or condemning the strikers, without reference to the Director of Publicity.” Mr Doidge: “It was the gag." DIRECTION TO EDITORS Mr 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 a difficulty for the country, was not accentuated by the publication of matter which would intensify the difficulty. It was not the 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 statements of the Minister of Transport. He had noticed that criticism of censorship by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association had been referred to .vith 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 a direction issued to the press declaring that this was necessary to prevent panic buyi p I w hich followed every reference to ; scarcity. Whether correct or not, a certain group of grocery stores whici had a normal demand for 25 tom, of sugar weekly sold 25 tons in one da / following press references to 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 exis ence. However, the sugar position to-day had entirely changed and there was a shortage in the country. Mr Sullivan finally stressed that whenever there was any reference . to shortage of any commodity the . tendency of the public was to buy to the limit of their capacity. A reference to the censorshop issue was also made by Mr 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, bu f 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 the Prime

Minister was open-minded enough to make certain of what the complaints really were. He could not see that censorship became a matter of a no-confidence motion.