FREEDOM ISSUE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20738, 23 February 1939, Page 2

FREEDOM ISSUE

“IRRELEVANT VILIFICATION” MR SAVAGE’S LANGUAGE (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Thursday “This Is the third occasion upon j ■which Mr Savage has fallen back upon i •very much the same type of language 1 in making public reference to me, and ' its repetition tends in any way to miti- j gate the poverty of its significance,” stated Mr R. M. Algie, organiser of | the New Zealand Freedom Associa- j tion, in replying to the remarks made by Mr Savage about him yesterday. “In the second place, I will call attention to the fact that an issue of vital importance to all sections of the community is at stake, namely, the ! right of free speech over the air by the medium of a public utility maintained by money contributed by the people themselves. “The Prime Minister does not even attempt to face, or to reply to, the ] specific questions raised by me in my ; statement to the press, but, instead, he descends at once to the level of i mere personal abuse and irrelevant i vilification, which, be it said, leaves ! me entirely unmoved. I wonder, | however, how Earl Baldwin would have | dealt with such a bona fide criticism iof Government policy as mine was if I that problem had confronted him dur- ! Ing his term of office as Prime Min- . ister of Britain.”