MR. O'REGAN IN REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 42, 18 February 1921, Page 2

MR. O'REGAN IN REPLY

■..-.■■ ■■'■ TO THB EDITOR.. , Sir,—Your anonymous correspondent who disports\hirraelf in,last night's Post had better stick to : the point—my criticism of the cable service—reserving his irreleyanci.es about so-called Imperial issues for another occasion. It is true that id your issue of the 31st ult. I wrote that the Transvaal State elections had taken place'on. the 26th, and assumin'gsuch- to, be the facts, iriy comments on.the silence of the cable agent were quite 'justified, particularly as I am able to furnish unquestionable proof of the repeated suppression of important jiews. I shall now prove, first, that my statements were made on the best evidence before me at the time; secondly, that the evidence was prima fkcle clear ; thirdly, that on the' evidence my comments were called, for; and, fourthly, that in so far as I v was in error, the., scrappiness and inaccuracy of the cable news was aione to blame) In The Post of 26th November,, last there appeared the following'cable message.:— ■ ."-"■■ CAPETOWN, 25th November. . .. General Smuts met-the Central.Executive of the Unionist Party at Johannesburg;, when it was unanimously de.cided to unite with the South African Party. and support the Premier's,appeal to appoint a committee to discuss arrangements with the committee of ' the South African Party. The elections are to be held on the 26th January Now, I.ask the reader to bear in mind the following facts:—First, the Union Parliament is elected quinquennially'; secondly, the last General Election took •place on ■■.the 15th" of March, 1920; thirdly, no previous intimation had been cabled that Mr. Smuts had procured a dissolution, a fact which we haive since'learned by mail; and thirdly, Jthe message stated that the conference or meeting with the Central .-Executive of the South African Party had taken place in Johannesburg. Clearly, therefore, the legitimate inference was that? the message referred, not to the Union elections, but to t)ie Transvaal State elections. The date of the elections was not a matter for inference. The message clearly states that they were to be held on 26th January. As a matter of fact I did not find the real position until the 2nd inst.,vjvhen I received my copy of Mr. Massihjham's excellent weekly, The Nation, a. journal studiously avoided by the cable agent. The message itself proves that the cable service is scrappy and' unreliable.' lam prepared to prove to the hilt if required that it is studiously false also. I may add that your correspondent has much better facilities than I for bearing in mind the .messages appearing in your columns. If he recollected them as accurately he would probably be lesS eager to make baseless and ridiculous charges against me.—l urn, etc., P. J. O'REGAN. 16th February. /