TOO MUCH SECRECY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 63, 15 March 1944, Page 4

TOO MUCH SECRECY

GOVERNMENT BLAMED

DISTRUST FOR THE PEOPLE (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. "We find increasing secrecy on the part of the Government, and particularly on the part of its leader," declared Mr. Sheat (Nat., Patea) in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives last night. He appealed to the Government, and'particularly to Mr. Fraser, for a greater degree of trust and confidence in the House of Representatives.

The people did not like the kind of thing that happened recently when the Prime Minister, while in Australia, announced to the world, and only secondly to the people of New Zealand, that meat rationing was to be introduced In tne Dominion, said Mr. Sheat. The people were ready to accept it long before that announcement was made. That was only one instance of the kind of thing undermining the confidence of the people and engendering the feeling that the Government did not trust the people. They were rapidly getting to the stage when thousands of people simply would not believe a word the Government uttered.

Mr. Sheat referred to a statement made recently by the Prime Minister and said it was most serious as far as New Zealand was concerned, but the reaction on the part of the people—probably a majority of the people—was that the whole story was a hoax and that the Government was putting across something. That certainly was a most unsatisfactory state of affairs.

Abuse of censorship, said Mr. Sheat, was the cause of a lot of distrust. Everybody knew that ifl wartime rigid censorship must be exercised, but he believed that in New Zealand the censorship had gone far beyond the legitimate needs of the situation. It had been abused to keep from the public facts that it was politically inconvenient for the public to know. There were certain things that had to be kept secret! but the censorship should not be used to stifle discussion on other matters of national importance, no matter how strong the criticism might be.