APOLOGY MADE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1943, Page 3

APOLOGY MADE

BY CHICAGO NEWSPAPER FOR INACCURATE STATEMENT ABOUT NEW ZEALAND. AMERICAN USE OF AIRPORTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, March 11. In publishing a letter from Mr Nash replying to its editorial, “Hello Suckers,” the Chicago “Tribune” explains that its comments were based on the testimony of Mr M. J. Maas, who went to New Zealand as an officer of the Marine Corps and presumably had first-hand knowledge. Mr Maas, however, had not replied to the denial statement made by Mr Sol Bloom, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, and therefore it must be assumed that he was in error. The “Tribune” accordingly apologised to New Zealand for comment based on inaccurate information. Mr Nash, in his letter, said the “Tribune” editorial was completely untrue, in bad taste, and cast an un-called-for slur on New Zealand’s reputation. He added that New Zealand was profoundly grateful for everything the United States had done in the Pacific. The Chicago “Tribune’s” editorial was based on Representative Maas’s criticisms of New Zealand’s reverse lend-lease, which alleged that New Zealanders ahd “seized the opportunity of building every airfield they could possibly put to peace, time use” and charging the entire cost of the fields, “whether useful to the American troops or not,” to the United States.