CHAIN LETTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1938, Page 5

CHAIN LETTER

GIVEN WIDER CIRCULATION THAN EVER THE HON W. PERRY CRITICISES MR SCRIMGEOUR DOCUMENT REPUDIATED BY NATIONAL PARTY (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An allegation that a chain letter attacking the Roman Catholic Church was-read over the air by the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, Mr C. G. Scrimgeour, to discredit the National Party is contained in an open letter to him from the Hon W. Perry, M.L.C., dater October 10. The following is the letter: — Dear Mr Scrimgeour,—Last night I heard you read over the air the notorious chain letter attacking the Catholic Church which has been in circulation for some time past and a copy of which lies before me. As a Catholic, I appreciate your condemnation of the vile effusion which is thoroughly offensive to all who profess the same faith as I do. No doubt this letter has reached thousands of people, including Catholics. But thousands of people, including Catholics, have never seen it. Why, then, did you read it last night, thus giving it a wider circulation than ever before and sending it into numberless homes hitherto uncontaminated by it? The letter is headed thus: “This is a chain letter. Please copy three times and pass on.” How many times, metaphorically speaking, did you copy it and pass it on last night? The authors must indeed have been delighted to find in you such a convenient and inexpensive means of disseminating their deplorable sectarian propaganda. I do not believe that you read the letters for the purpose of assisting its authors. I believe you read it with the object of discrediting the National Party. The letters exhorts the people to return the National Party to power, thereby conveying at least the implication that the National Party had some cognisance of it. If, in reading it, you did not intend to discredit the National Party, why did you not tell your listeners that the letter has been publicly disclaimed and condemned by the Hon Adam Hamilton, the leader of that party?’ Or did you deliberately omit to tell your listeners this so that the implication I have mentioned would be conveyed to your Catholic listeners who had not read either the letter or the disclaimers? V Please let me assure you that this letter is not being written at the instigation of the National Party or any member of it. Nor does any member of that party know that I am writing it. I am sending it to the Press today for publication, and at the same time am sending you a copy so that you will have an opportunity of immediate reply.—Yours faithfully, W. PERRY.

MR SCRIMGEOUR’S REPLY NOT AWARE OF DENIAL BY MR HAMILTON (By Telegraph—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., October 10. “The chain letter I referred to on Sunday night is in my opinion one of the most scurrilous documents I have ever read,” said the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, Mr C. G. Scrimgeour, in reply tonight to the Hon W. Perry’s open letter. “Obviously it was deliberately designed by its originator to stir up that bitterness of sectarianism which we had all hoped had been banished from this Dominion. "The accusation that members of any particular denomination received consideration above others in the Government service is entirely wrong. I stated on Sunday night that, as the head of a State department having employed well over 280 different individuals, I had never once inquired of those persons their faith or creed, nor had I ever been directed to make such an inquiry. All people in this service —and I believe in every other State service—have been selected on their merits in actual work and not upon their religious beliefs. . “The document itself was typical oi many others which have been circulated recently, and I can say without hesitation that New Zealand politics will be of a much high standard if the general public refuse to take any notice of such rubbish. “The only reason that I made mention of this letter on Sunday night last was that to my own knowledge hundreds of people had read it, and some were inclined to believe that there might be some truth in it. Surely no one can possibly object to the emphasis I placed upon the objectionable nature of the document. “In .reply to Mr Perry’s question asking why I did not mention that the Hon Mr Hamilton had denied his association with the circulation of the chain letter, 1 can only say that I was not aware that he had made such a denial-and that being so I P res “™ e that there are thousands of other people who were also not aware of the denial. That Mr Hamilton should disclaim the document is only pected, tor surely no rignt-tninKing citizen would ever allow his name to be associated with such a vile thing. “I accept the assurance of Mr Perry that his letter was not written at the instigation of the National Par y an I ask him to accept my assurance that my reference to the matter was in no way inspired by any political party but arose only out of a common desire with him that the public should be warned against being influenced by such propaganda.”

EMPHATIC DENIAL NO CHAIN LETTERS ISSUED BY NATIONAL PARTY STATEMENT BY DOMINION PRESIDENT (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An authoritative denial that the New Zealand National Party was in any way associated with the preparation or publication of a chain letter, which, he says, is now being circulated by interested parties to the detriment of the Roman Catholic Church, is given by the president of the party, Mr C. H. Weston. “No chain letter on any subject has had the endorsement of the National Party,” says Mr Weston, “and we

strongly resent the implication by the Government-paid propagandist, the Rev C. G. Scrimgeour, that this party has any knowledge of, or association with, it.” Repeating his denial when addressing a large audience in the Concert Chamber of the Wellington Town Hall last night, Mr Weston said: “We have never sent out one chain letter. What is more, we have never sent out any:thing that did not bear the imprint of the National Party. I want you to believe that the National Party, from the very beginning, made up its mind that, so far as it was concerned, this fight should be absolutely clean. As president of the party, I can tell you that was our intention, and we carried it out. (Applause). Mr W. Appleton, National candidate for Wellington Central, said that the chain letter was the “dirtiest piece of work ever perpetrated in New Zealand.” “The perpetrator of that letter is not fit to be a New Zealander,” he said, “because it is a very subtle attempt to set the Protestants against the Catholics. I may say I have never seen any evidence of the Labour Party trying to favour any particular denomination." (Applause).