CHARGES BY MR NASH

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26488, 1 August 1951, Page 8

CHARGES BY MR NASH

ALLEGED TAPPING OF TELEPHONES . POLICE MINISTER REPLIES (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 31. “The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nash) has already been assured by the Post and Telegraph Department and by the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) and by myself—and we have all referred to it in our discussions in the House —that there has definitely been no telephone tapping whatsoever, and that telephone conversations have not been listened to,” said the Minister in charge of Police (Mr F. W. Fortune) to-day. He was commenting <?n an allegation reported to have been made by Mr Nash when speaking at Naenae last night that a man who said he was a police officer had interrupted a telephone conversation and had then asked for the name and telephone number of a Naenae man who had been speaking to a trade union president. “No police officer did what Mr Nash suggests,” said Mr Fortune. "I repeat that hfe is casting grave reflections upon officers in the Post and Telegraph and Police Departments. I expect better of a man who has the responsibility of being Leader of the Opposition in this country. “Mr Nash is also reported this morning as charging that the newspapers ‘don’t actually lie, they make you believe a lie.’ Mr Nash appears to be adopting the very technique he condemns,” said Mr Fortune. Mr Hill’s Complaint The Post Office to-day denied that the delivery of a cablegram from San Francisco addressed to the secretary of the deregistered New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr T. Hill) was delayed from May 19 to July 23. The Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department (Mr P. N. Cryer) to-day said in reply to Mr Hill’s complaint: “This cablegram was delivered as addressed soon after receipt at Wellington on Saturday, May 19. The delivering message boy is most reliable and states that the message was handed to a man on the top floor of the building addressed. The lad states further that a meeting was in progress and that the discussion concerned the ‘wharf and watersiders.’ “Mr Hill's inference that the Post Office is ‘delaying’ messages or letters is completely incorrect.” ,