BASELESS WAR RUMOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1939, Page 6

BASELESS WAR RUMOURS

EMPHATIC PROTEST MADE a BY PREMIER. DANGEROUS & MISCHIEVOUS. (Ry Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Commenting on a report from Dunedin, that the Government has been warned that war was likely in August or September, the Prime Minister to day made a most emphatic protest against such baseless allegations. "It is a dangerous' and mischevious statement,” he said. "Everybody knows what the state of the world is today. Everybody who reads the newspapers knows as much as Ministers know onthe general situation. No one knows what the future has in store, but 'here is a definite statement from Dunedin that war is coming in August or September. It is not in the interests of the country and it is not in the interests of peace. It is a statement that no one should be allowed to make. I don’t know if the law covers it, but I state that no one should be allowed to make it. The statement is anonymous, but that does not make it any the less dangerous. Most people who do think about world conditions and New Zealand conditions in particular, will refrain from malting such statements be cause they are so dangerous.”