RADIO FACILITIES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 128, 23 February 1939, Page 13

RADIO FACILITIES

Mr. Savage’s Reference To Prof. Algie’s Statement “By what stretch of imagination can Professor Algie claim to represent anyone over the air .or anywhere else?” asked the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, when referring yesterday to the statement by the organizer of the New Zealand Freedom Association, Professor 11. M. Algie, concerning the refusal of tbe authorities to grant the association broadcasting facilities. “Who is Professor Algie?” asked Mr. Savage. “Is he the same gentleman who, a few months ago, dropped a fairly lucrative position with the Auckland University to take up the cudgels against the Government during the last election campaign? Has Professor Algie forgotten so soon the results of his efforts on that occasion? What attitude did the same Professor Algie take in respect of the same principle when he was at the Auckland University?” ISSUE OF VITAL IMPORTANCE Prof. Algie’s Rejoinder Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, February 22. “A few very brief comments should suffice to dispose completely of the statements made, by the Prime Minister,” said Professor .R. M. Algie. organizer of the New Zealand Freedom Association, in reply to views expressed 'by Mr. Savage on Professor Algie’s criticism of the refusal to grant broadcasting facilities to the association. r “In the first place,” Professor Algie stated, “I may point out that this is the third occasion on which Mr. Savage has fallen back on very much the same -type of language in making public reference to me, and I doubt whether the frequency of its repetition tends in any way to mitigate the poverty of its significance. In the second place. I would call attention to the fact that an issue of vital importance ~to all sections of the community is at stake, namely, the right of free speech over the air by medium of a public utility maintained by moneys conrtibuted by tli£ people themselves. “The Prime Minister does not even attempt to face or to reply to specific questions raised by me in my statement to the Press, but instead lie descends at once to the level of mere personal abuse and irrelevant vilification which, be it said, leaves me entirely unmoved. “I wonder, however, how Earl Baldwin would have dealt with such bona fide criticism of Government policy as mine was if that problem had confronted him during his term of office as Prime Minister of Britain.”