CABLE CENSORING.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1921, Page 6

CABLE CENSORING.

TO PROTECT MINISTERS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, June 16. Attention is drawn to the following instructions, which have been issued to telegraph officers in New Zealand: “No telegram purporting to express the views of any New Zealand Minister of the Crown on any Imperial question affecting any problem connected with the association of the United Kingdom ami New Zealand in peace or war is to be permitted to be dispatched beyond New Zealand by telegraph without the written authority of the Minister concerned. Any such cablegram handed in without Ministerial approval is to be refused.” It is gathered in the course of inquiries that the instruction has been issued under the special powers granted to the Government by Parliament during the war. It appears that the prohibition is considered by Ministers to be justified at the present time by the fact that the Prime Minister is representing the Dominion in highly important and possibly delicate discussions in London, involving the relationship of the various States of the Empire. VIEWS OF SIR F. BELL. Wellington, June 16. When the Acting-Prime Minister (Sir Francis Boll) was seen to-day in regard to the new censorship instruction, he said that probably the power assumed during war no longer existed, but at the present time it was very desirable that the reports of statements of a responsible Minister should be submitted to him before being transmitted for publication in Ehgland or foreign countries. The tension created by the war was not yet finished and it was hope<H whether the power existed or not, that correspondents of the Press would comply with the very reasonable request made.