CAUSED BY STATEMENT BY FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1939, Page 7

CAUSED BY STATEMENT BY FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY

Orders to Man British Fleet’s Anti-Aircraft Guns SUPPRESSION OF SPEECH REQUESTED BY GOVERNMENT By Telegraph.—Press Association • -Copyright. LONDON, April 5. A first-class sensation was caused in London yesterday by a statement made by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Stanhope, in the course of a speech on board the aircraft-carrier Aik Royal at the inauguration of the new scheme for cinema programmes for naval ratings. Lord Stanhope said: “Unfortunately others are not here tonight because, shortly before I left the Admiralty, it was necessary to give orders to man the fleet’s anti-aircraft guns in order to be ready for anything that might happen.” The deputy-leader of the Labour Party, Mr Arthur Greenwood, will ask in the House of Commons today for an explanation of Lord Stanhope’s speech, whose cancellation the Admiralty requested, but too late to prevent its publication in the early editions of three morning papers, including the "Daily Mail,” which points out that by then the speech had been flashed throughout the world. Most morning papers gave prominence to Mr Greenwood’s request for an explanation of Lord Stanhope’s “extraordinary speech last night,” but only the “News Chronicle” and the “Daily Sketch” published the speech in their final editions. The “Daily Sketch” published it without mentioning the Admiralty embargo, to which others also gave prominence as a reason for non-publication. In addition to the Admiralty, the Prime Minister s Office also requested newspapers and news agencies not to publish the speech.