"Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1937. MR SCRIMGEOUR’S ATTACK

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 419, 28 April 1937, Page 4

"Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1937. MR SCRIMGEOUR’S ATTACK

The announcement by the Acting-Prime Minister, Hon. P. Fraser, that “the statement made by Rev. C. G. Scrimgeour about a section of the Press was made without the consent, knowledge, or approval of the Government,” if it is the only official statement that is to be made about the matter, leaves something important unsaid.

It is satisfactory to know that Mr Scrimgeour did not have the sanction or support of the Government for his unwarranted attack and wholly improper use of his position as a public servant. But the next thing to be said is that the Minister has accepted and used Mr Scrimgeour’s own qualification that he was attacking a “section of the Press.”

Although one newspaper was singled out for special mention, Mr Scrimgeour’s general remarks had a much wider range: in effect he impugned the whole of the Press of the Dominion. In those circumstances it would have been more satisfactory to have had a clear indication from the Minister that Mr Scrimgeour had been told in no uncertain terms the limitations of his functions as a public servant and of the uses to which he was entitled to put a national service.

The Minister has made his disapproval plain enough by implication; he should be explicit in an assurance that Mr Scrimgeour will not in future be permitted to overstep the bounds of his duty and use his position to attack the Press or any other institution. The Minister’s further assurance that “the Government never at any time considered for a moment anything so stupid as . . . ‘muzzling’the Press’ by ... a peace time ‘censorship’ is welcome if unnecessary.

Had the Government considered anything so “ridiculous,’ to use the Minister’s own word, it would have alienated the sympathy of every person in the country who believes in the principle of freedom of opinion and the right to express it; and we believe that that means the vast majority of New Zealanders.

The episode has been an unpleasant one, but has served one useful purpose in clearing the air of much unhappy conjecture.