SERVICE OF SILENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1941, Page 5

SERVICE OF SILENCE

AS MEANS OF SAFEGUARDING SHIPS MINISTER INAUGURATES CAMPAIGN. ELIMINATION OF DANGEROUS TALK. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A. national campaign for promoting I lie safety of shipping was inaugurated with an address last night by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, tie said there was nothing technical about the crusade, nor was there cause for anxiety or rumours of new menaces because of its inaugural ion. The campaign was one in which every citizen could and should play an effective part. Silence was the 'service required from everybody. The whole purpose of the campaign was to secure the willingness of everybody to refrain from making any mention at all —either in the home, in the street or on tramcars and trains — about the movements of ships. “We can all confidently leave it to the Navy and the Merchant Service to do everything humanly possible to safeguard their ships, their personnel —and in the case of liners and trading vessels, the lives of passengers and the transport of essential commodities,” said Mr Jones. “But they must be protected in their arduous task of giving us protection. Has anyone ever said to you: ‘What is the big ship in port’ or ‘when is the transocean liner leaving?’ The questioner, and there are thousands of such inquisitive people in New Zealand, is not playing his full part in the war effort. And those to whom such questions 'are put fail in their national duty if they do not try with all the wisdom at their command to make a quick and complete end to dangerous talk. PERILS OF THE SEA. “Theo worst perils of the sea today are not due to the forces of nature. They are the destructive perils designed and operated ruthlessly by the evil forces of aggressive nations who flout the humane laws of seafaring even in wartime, and sink the most innocent of ships not only without mercy but with fiendish glee. Loose talk ashore may cause appalling loss of life in mid-ocean. Germany is alert to stray information and is always searching for it. Even the air has ears. “The Germans are a race of eavesdroppers and keyhole spies. There is only one way to frustrate them every time and all the time. Keep silent about the movements and tasks of shipping, and maintain perfect silence even though your loyed ones are aboard and you want more than anything else to know when they are to sail or come back from distant countries. For these and other reasons the War Cabinet decided to initiate a safety of shipping campaign. “Already efficient help in advancing the campaign is assured,V the Minister continued. “Postmen and members of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary tomorrow will begin the distribution of posters. In view of the importance of this distribution, I hope that employers will assist by granting time off to those members of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary who can be spared to help in the work. I also ask those to whom posters will be delivered to display them to the best possible advantage. “I have no wish to create suspicion among the people or to give the slightest cause for anxiety,” concluded Mr Jones. “The slightest hint of sailing times or dates may mean the loss of hundreds of lives of our fellow citizens. It may even mean the loss of a member of your own family. I invite everybody to take part in this campaign and make it a coniplete success.” RESPONSIBILITY ON ALL. The Minister was followed by an Intelligence Staff officer, who said his talk was aimed at the careless conversation and letter writing which gave away to the enemy valuable information concerning our war effort in all its phases. “It- must be assumed the German Intelligence Service is here in the North and South Islands in some form or shape, listening to people who are talking each day and every day,” he said. “It follows, therefore, that everyone, in their everyday life, must be scrupulously careful in what they say. “We must realise that every ship which leaves this Dominion or arrives here runs the very real risk of being sunk by enemy raider or submarine, and in that event the chances are that those on board will be drowned,” said this officer. He added that details of or speculations as to the movements and disposition of ships were discussed not only by those people not immediately concerned, but also by the relatives and friends of the men actually travelling in ships. These friends and relatives would be horrified at the suggestion that they were imperilling the lives of their people going overseas by talking needlessly, carelessly, about ships and their movements, but that was precisely what they were doing. He knew how natural it was to be inquisitive as to the name of a ship, where it was going to, and when. In times of peace that sort of thing was harmless, bqt in war the reverse was the case.

The time had come when each one of us must realise our responsibilities in connection with ships and shipping movements. “Don’t talk about them; don’t speculate about them, and don’t ask questions about them,” said the officer. “A great deal of the leakage of information springs from answers given to questions which should never be put. Don’t ask questions aboutships. “After all, what good does it do in comparison with the harm it might do if someone conveys that information to enemy sources? I know it is not easy to keep silent about those things which we discussed so freely before the war. Somehow or other, conversation in war time drifts into channels which provoke the disclosure of information.”