MILITARY MATTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 10

MILITARY MATTERS

GIVING OF INFORMATION

RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED

Amended regulations governing the New Zealand Military Forces appear in the latest Gazette. They have farreaching importance with respect to all persons subject to military law. They are forbidden to publish in any form whatever, or to communicate either directly or indirectly to the newspapers, any military information, or their views on any military subject without special authority. The regulations state emphatically that: ' .

"Any information of a professional nature which an officer or soldier may acquire while travelling or employed on duty is to bo regarded as the property of tho Defence Department, and is not to be published in any form, without the permission' of the General Officer Commanding." Further,'" When application is made for permission to publish any article or deliver any public lecture or wireless address, the document will' be typewritten and will be submitted in duplicate direct to general headquarters. A statement"will be enclosed from the authority under whom the applicant is immediately serving that such authority has no objection to permission being applied for. Permission to publish will apply only to the article as submitted. It will not convey official endorsement of its contents, and no statement tending to imply official approval or endorsement is to be included in any part of the publication, nor is permission to be referred to in any way."

"Any communication affecting the New Zealand Military Forces generally, or any arm or branch of the Service, which it may be considered desirable to make to the Press will bo made by the Minister of Defence.

"In commands, .communications to the Press may be mado only when they affect solely the command concerned, and in this caso they will be mado by command headquarters, or by an officer authorised by command headquarters to do so." ___