MR C. G. SCRIMGEOUR’S CHALLENGE

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22895, 16 December 1939, Page 7

MR C. G. SCRIMGEOUR’S CHALLENGE

TO THE EDITOB OF THB PRESS. Sir, —Your correspondent, Mr J. Hill, in classing those who write to your journal over a pen name as “anonymous” correspondents is in my opinion barking up the wrong tree. I have no doubt but that Mr Hill believes in the secrecy of the ballot and all that is involved in that system towards the preservation of freedom of thought and action in the political arena. All those who avail themselves of the privilege of writing to the newspapers know that they cannot remain anonymous; they must sign their letters and give also their address. How much different is the creature who writes an anonymous letter and sends it to his victim without any indication as to the writer? Therefore, Mr Hill is most unfair to all those using a pen name. In reference to the question of Mr C. G. Scrimgeour, the Director of Commercial Broadcasting, using his position as a civil servant to blast over the air on Sunday evenings all and sundry who happen to differ from him politically, I should like ask Mr Hill'if he thinks it is a fair thing? In weighing this question, it is reasonable to draw attention to the fact that probably a majority of radio licence-holders, or at the very least a considerable portion of them, are opposed to the particular political philosophy of Mr Scrimgeour, and the irony of it. We have to pay our quota of the cost of running the service, including the salary of the gentleman concerned, and we have no redress, not even the courtesy of a reply over the same medium. Mr Hill is an advocate of democracy”we are told. Well, if Mr Scrimgeour’s use of .the radio is a sample of democracy as understood by the Labour Party, then my education has been sadly neglect^-Your^et^^ December 15, 1939.