RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31672, 7 May 1968, Page 26

RANDOM REMINDER

1 SPY . . .

There has not been, as far as we are aware, a fol-low-up story of the announcement that New Zealand had become the target of industrial espionage. It was a somewhat dramatic disclosure. Workers at a Taranaki factory, it was stated, had been told to talk to no-one of the work they were doing; it was believed that unauthorised persons had tried to see processes at a Taranaki dairy factory: an overseas research scientist

or technician had been discovered working at a Taranaki dairy factory; Dr P. S. Robertson, assistant director of the Dairy Research Institute, in Palmerston North, said industrial espionage would increase. So there it is. They seem to have started among the dairy factories, but each and all of us must take every precaution to expose spies in the pay of foreign powers, whenever and wherever we find them.

Is the crayfish-tailing business safe? Some of our clever foreign competitors are masterly with synthetics. There are, of course, some enterprises which need have no fears of espionage. Soccer comes to mind. And from all reports, the tourist industry will be able to go its way unmolested. But Rugby coaches are asked to watch out for the appearance in the front row of gentlemen with dark glasses, raincoats and French accents.