SCRIMGEOUR INCIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1943, Page 6

SCRIMGEOUR INCIDENT

> FURTHER REPLY TO GOVERNMENT REQUEST FOR ROYAL COMMISSION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “I see that the Prime Minister asserts that for a considerable period the Government has considered the manner in which I have . carried out my duties as Controller of Commercial Broadcasting to be unsatisfactory,” IMr C. G. Scrimgcour stated yesterday. “I am completely unaware of any con- ■ duct of mine which could possibly justify the assertion now so belatedly made. 1 feel sure that any undisclosed matter now alleged against me will be found to be just as groundless as the charge that led to my i ecent revoked suspension. On that occasion the Minister of Broadcasting alleged that I had delivered an uncensored broadcast, but it was soon shown that the truth was that every word of the broadcast had been submitted to and approved by the censor and that every page of the script bore the censor’s approving stamp. ‘‘The terms of the Broadcasting Act deprive me of any right to bring an action in the courts for wrongful dismissal, but I notice that the Prime Minister says that the Government would be willing to submit in detail ‘to any suitable responsible body' its reasons for coming to the conclusion that my conduct as controller was unsatisfactory. “Obviously there can be no more suitable or responsible body than a Royal Commission, presided over by a Judge of the Supreme Court, and I invite the Government to set up such a commission with power to inquire and report, not only into my own conduct as controller, but also into my charges, against the Government of discrimination, victimisation and railroading.”