“DRUNKEN ORGY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 August 1943, Page 3

“DRUNKEN ORGY”

IN OFFICE OF COMMERCIAL RADIO SERVICE z ALLEGED BY PRIME MINISTER MR SCRIMGEOUR’S DISMISSAL. DISCUSSED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Reference to a record which lie alleged the late Controller of Commercial Broadcasting had arranged to be made of a ‘‘drunken orgy in which filthy, obscene, and blasphemous language was .used” and to a freedom station which, lie said, the Communists had tried to establish in New Zealand, was made by the Prime Minister. Air Fraser, when the Broadcasting Account Estimates were dis- ' cussed by the House of Representatives last night.

The Prime Minister was replying to the acting-Leader of the Opposition, Mr Polson (Stratford), who asked for information about the circumstances of Mr C. G. Scrimgeour’s dismissal. Mr Polson, raising the question why provision was made in the vote for a salary for a controller of Commercial Broadcasting, said everybody knew the late controller was no longer in control, was in camp, and happened to be a candidate for the Prime Minister’s electorate. The public was entitled to know -the facts about why his services were dispensed with. Some said he had been railroaded. TALK AND PARTIES. Mr Polson said the controller had been allowed to say what he liked about the Opposition, and the Government had applauded. He had said on one occasion that members of the Opposition would be no fouler if they were dragged through a sewer from the North Cape to the Bluff. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry: “That is not true. He never said it."

Mr Polson: “A record was taken. I heard him say it myself.” But, continued Mr Polson, let the late controller say a word in criticism of the Government and he went out of the service. Not only did he get out, but a mysterious and secret record was taken of a party, and the public was hearing that the Minister of Broadcasting was inviting people along to his office to hear it. “In fairness to members and the country we should have the record played over on the floor of the House, and let us hear it,” said Mr Polson, “and then we will know something about it and perhaps collect something in amusement tax.” Adding that the country should hear a firsthand account of the whole matter from the Prime Minister, who happened to be a very appropriate person to explain, Mr Polson said the Opposition believed that fair play was bonny play, and did not know whether the controller had had fair play. The House and the country did not know what was in that secret, that Gestapo record, and whether it justified a Minister of the Crown taking parties round to his office to hear it from time to time. The whole business was distasteful to the people of the Dominion. As far as the Opposition was concerned, they did not want to hear it.

MR FRASER REPLIES. Replying, the Prime Minister said he happened to be a candidate in the same electorate in which the recent controller of commercial broadcasting was also a candidate. That put him in a difficult position. “I would have preferred that the honourable member for Stratford had left the matter alone,” Mr Fraser continued, “but now that he has raised the matter I am compelled to deal with it. For ai^ extraordinary reason a record was taken of a drunken orgy in the headquarters of the Commercial Broadcasting Service—in a Government office —-in which the man in charge took part. Mr Osborne, Government, Onehunga: “Who made this record?” The Prime Minister: “The controller arranged for it to be made.” Mr Fraser said it was a most disgraceful thing that anyone would want to perpetuate such fjlth. The reasoning behind it was mysterious to understand. “Anybody who takes part in such a drunken orgy and takes a record of such filthy, obscene and blasphemous language is not fit to be in charge of a Government department,” he went on to state. “I must say that was not the reason why action was taken. If I as Prime Minister had known that this was going on I would not have tolerated it for two seconds. And another thing, the Communists who are organising the campaign of this person were those who had been trying to organise a ‘freedom station’ in New Zealand and to suborn the staff of the service and trying to control it,” saicl Mr Fraser. ■'The Government would not tolerate such a thing.” The Prime Minister added that he was away from Wellington both when the controller was appointed and when he was dismissed. He had been shown a prospectus of a company which the controller proposed to float to exploit the rights of commercial broadcasting in New Zealand —a type of racketeering. WARNINGS NOT HEEDED. Recounting the circumstances of the controller's suspension, reinstatement and subsequent dismissal, the Prime Minister said he could not agree that he had been harshly treated. If a public servant would not obey the Minister and the Government then he had io go. The Government had been long suffering. Repeated warnings had been given, but apparently the controller wanted to dominate the service for his own ends and purposes.

Mr Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn) said that if the Pharisees could have hung everybody who had used the language complained of there would be few men marching with our army today. Mr Langstone (Government, Waimarino) said there was a good deal of truth in the statement of the member for Tauranga that in 1935 the Government had worshipped at the shrine of “Scrim.” He did not see the need for two controllers, and thought it better to have the two services under the control of one man.

Mr Kidd (Opposition, Waitaki) said the Government could almost take credit for having reached the Treasury Benches on the back of “Scrim.” Now, however, it was a different story. When