BROADCAST ON RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27038, 13 May 1953, Page 10

BROADCAST ON RUSSIA

PROTEST BY LABOUR FEDERATION

MR WALSH WRITES TO MR ALGIE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 12. Surprise that the Government should make facilities available “which could be used for the spreading of Soviet propaganda” is expressed by the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr F. P. Walsh) in a letter to the Minister in charge of Broadcasting (Mr R. M. Algie) in which he protests against permission having been given to Mr F. Langley to speak on “Present-day Unionism in the U.S.S.R.” Mr Walsh said that Mr Langley had recently returned from a Soviet Government-sponsored tour of Russia, and by no stretch of the imagination could facilities for the possible spreading of Russian propaganda be justified under the guise of freedom of speech. The federation appreciated that point, said Mr Walsh, and refused to allow delegates returning from Sovietsponsored tours to address councils of the federation. Mr Walsh added that he had been invited to broadcast a talk on < New Zealand trade unionism, but would not associate himself with a series of broadcasts that allowed Soviet propaganda to be disseminated. A copy of the letter has also been sent to the acting-Prime Minister (Mr K. J. Holyoake). “In an invitation to me to broadcast a talk on New Zealand trade unionism, the director of talks (Mr J. H. Hall) advised me that he had already commissioned Mr Langley to talk about ‘Present-day Unionism in the U.S.S.R.,”’ said Mr Walsh in his letter. “For. your information, MrLangley has recently returned from ( a Soviet Government-sponsored tour of the U.S.S.R. I might add that the 1952 annual conference of the New Zealand Federation of Labour considered the question of a representative of the trade union movement visiting Soviet Rusia, and made it a condition that any delegate should be elected by our affiliates and not a person apointed by a small non-rep-resentetive group.” Mr Walsh said that the democratic trade union movement throughout the world carried on a consistent campaign against insidious propaganda by the Communists, and it surprised him that the New Zealand Government, which claimed to be opposed to the cold-war activities of the Soviet Government, should make facilities available for the spreading of Soviet propaganda. Mr Algie said tonight that as yet he had not seen Mr Walsh s letter. He had been fully engaged today at a Cabinet meeting, he said. He hoped to study the letter tomorrow and alter sdme departmental inquiries he expected to make a statement in reply.