Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1941. THE NEED FOR SILENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 147, 3 April 1941, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1941. THE NEED FOR SILENCE.

The report by the Commission that investigated the circumstances of the loss of New Zealand ships through enemy action is most comprehensive, containing many valuable recommendations. The Government will doubtless act promptly in ensuring that remedies are provided where action by the authorities is called for. The attention of the public should be more particularly called to that section of the report dealing with unintentional leakages of information that may be of value to the enemy. In the matter of overseas for instance, the evidence by the Controller of Censorship revealed a serious lack of appreciation of the need for avoidance of any information of, or references to, the movements of troops and of shipping. In one week, Mr McNamara reported, the censorship authorities had to amend more than a hundred cablegrams handed in' at two cities alone, which contained most incautious references to matters of military and naval importance; in that same week several radio messages required to be altered and other cable messages to be cancelled for similar reasons. If the senders of cablegrams, who may be supposed to have studied the regulations, err so much, how many indiscreet dangerous statement must be included in personal letters. The review by the Commission of the manner in which the commander and officers of the Pacific raider set about seeking information from their captives indicates how the heedless passing on of unconsidered scraps of information may enable an experienced intelligence officer to construct a fairly accurate outline of events and probabilities. The same caution should also be observed in conversation, for no one can tell how any particular remark may be passed on, its very changes in transmission perhaps approximating even nearer the truth than the original statement. To give this warning does not mean that we assert that enemy agents are sending information out of the country. It is simply a statement that no risk whatever should be taken. Some of the most loyal people are- guilty, through thoughtlessness, of writing and speaking of things that in the national interest, for the safety of troops at sea and of the merchant seamen who face continual hazards, should be kept absolutely secret. The trouble is that in many cases the original offence is committed by people who should know better. In Britain the Ministry of Information has. impressed upon everyone the necessity of not revealing by any means information that may have reached them, and the report of the Commission shows that there is need in this Dominion for a similar campaign. In wartime everyone should conduct himself as the guardian of the State, careful that neither community nor individual is endangered through thoughtless lapse in a boumjen duty.