OVERSEA MAILS

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 14, 16 January 1918, Page 7

OVERSEA MAILS

RELAXATION OF REGULATIONS

URGED.

(BI TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

CHBISTCHURCH, 15th January. A great deal of inconvenience ie caused to business people and others in the Dominion by the censorship regulation which forbids the publication of any information regarding the arrival and departure of oversea mails. In Australia a less tight rein is kept on the censorship, and the newspapers there regularly announce arrivals or departures, as long as three or four days ahead of the expected event;.

The matter wag brought to the notice of Sir Joseph Ward, and in reply he said he had been considering the'matter during the last day or so.. Personally he could see no reason at all why in New Zealand the same procedure should not bo followed as in Australia, but he pointed out that the regulations controlling the censorship here were in the hands of the Defence Department. Ha realised that longer notice of the arrival and departure of mails would be of benefit to the public generally, and if Australia could give' it without danger he thought we could do so here. He had already made up his mind to communicate, with the Minister of Defence on the matter and bring it before Cabinet, and he believed that a change that would lie satisfactory to all concerned could be made.

With reference to the above message, it may be stated that the manager of the Press Association has twice brought the matter under the notice of the Minister of Defence,, pointing out neither Australia nor Canada are subjected to such restrictions. Sir James Allen replied that it was done at the instance of the Imperial Government, and could not be altered, but he did not offer to explain why these restrictions are applicable only to a little distant country like New' Zealand, and are not enforced by the Imperial Government elsewhere.