CENSORING PRESS CABLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1921, Page 4

CENSORING PRESS CABLES.

Another instance of the arbitrary application of the war regulations is afforded by the order that has been issued by the Government to telegraph officers in the Dominion to refuse to accept any cable message intended for publication in England or foreign countries, and purporting to express the views of any Dominion Minister bn any Imperial question concerning peace or war, unless specially authorised by the Minister concerned. According to the Acting-Premier (Sir Francis Bell) it is doubtful whether this prohibitory power under the war regulations is now in existence. That, however, is of no importance, as the Government controls the telegraph service of the Dominion, and is in a position to give such instructions as it pleases to its officers. What really matters is that the order, as explained -by Sir Francis Bell, implies one of two things —either that Ministers are not to be trusted to use discretion when making public reference to Imperial affairs, or Press correspondents are not to be trusted to transmit an accurate summary of Ministerial pronouncements. If the “tensioh created by the war” is not yet finished, and it is specially necessary not to embarrass Mr. Massey while engaged in “delicate discussions in London involving -the relationship of the various States of the Empire”, surely the most obvious and correct method of action was for the Acting-Premier to have warned his colleagues to preserve absolute silence on the matters in question, and not to have stultified them by the order given to telegraph officers. Between invoking the war regulations and making flimsy excuses therefor, the Acting-Premier appears to be finding ample scope for his versatility. The public may assume that this cable censorship is more likely to have arisen at Mr. Massey’s instigation than on the initiative of Sir Francis Bell, and they would have more easily understood its significance if it had dealt with such an important matter as the financial position of the country, particularly in view of the ActingPremier’s remarks as to an empty Treasury and the vanishing of last year’s surplus. Gn the grounds given as the reason for the censorship, this arbitrary order stands condemned. It is an insult to the intelligence of the people of the Dominion to expect them to believe that anything said by any of Mr. Massey’s colleagues on Imperial matters wpuld be of sufficient weight to have any effect on the delicate discussions in London. The order distinctly lowers the dignity of Ministers, and is an undeserved slight on the cable correspondents. Apparently Mr. Massey has no faith in such men, and it may become the custom of Ministers to transmit their own messages to the overseas Press in the same way as that adopted by Mr. Massey. That system is one lesson which the war proved to be a delusion and a snare.