PUBLIC MORALE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 170, 21 July 1941, Page 2

PUBLIC MORALE

NEWSPRINT RATIONING

NEW SOUTH WALES WARNING (0.C.) SYDNEY, July 12. Newsprint rationing, as a disguised form of suppressing the Press, and the censorship were attacked by the Premier, Mr. McKell, at a luncheon at the Journalists' Club, of which Mr. McKell and six of the present N.S.W. Cabinet are members. "Both the Press and members of Parliament must see that even in wartime their fundamental right to express their opinions is not curtailed to the extent that some people would like to curtail it," he said. "The Press and Parliament have a duty to the public to see that they know the facts about administration. Where mistakes are being made it is necessary that they should be exposed to get the best out of the nation.

"We are told that rationing is needed to save dollar exchange. But rationing can be used as a kind of censorship by cutting down the space in which the papers could tell people what is going on. If it is carried to the extreme, our Press to a large extent will be eliminated. The public would then have to relyon rumour and the morale of the people would be destroyed. So, in considering the question of dollar exchange we have to consider the much larger question of preserving public morale."