DAMAGING DOMINION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 26, 31 January 1923, Page 5

DAMAGING DOMINION

EMPIRE MISSION REPORT 1 ~ PUBLICATION AN ERROR.

(GRIND PRSSS ASSOCIATION,—COPTRIOHT.)

(PUBLISHED IN THE TIMES.)

LONDON,- 29th January. Referring to Major Belcher's cabled report, Mr. T. .E. Donne, of the New Zealand' Office, said that as soon as Sir James Allen received a copy he wrote to the Duke of Devonshire protesting that, apart from their inaccuracy, the statement were most irrelevant. The Duke of Devonshire replied admitting the unfortunate irrelevancy, but understood that confidentially Mr. V\ F. Wintour took the same view.

"It is a little , difficult," gaid Mr. Donne, "to accept the management's explanation. The report was widely circulated, and extracts were furnished by the publicity ctaff to many provincial newspapers, one of which headed them: 'Disastrous Be3ults of Inflated Land Values.' The extracts stated that despite New Zealand's,prosperity the farmers wer© in a perilous position. It proceeded to say that many farmers had been ruined, and others were so loaded with mortgages that they owned neither farms nor stock- '

''How can the management claim the document was confidential," concluded Mr. Donne, "when the publicity staff issued it to the Press?"

Mr. Wintour attributed the nublication to the mistake of an over-zealous official. •