"FRIENDLY ROAD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1938, Page 10

"FRIENDLY ROAD"

SUPPORTERS' MEETING

ADDRESS BY MR. SCRIMGEOUR

REQUEST TO NATIONAL LEADER

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A resolution to seek an assurance from the Leader of the National Party (the Hon. A. Hamilton) that in the event of his party being successful in the forthcoming election the Friendly Road sessions would remain undisturbed, was carried unanimously by an enthusiastic meeting of over 4000 people in the Town Hall and Concert Chamber, with a large overflow in the street, last evening. The meeting was under the auspices of the Friendly Road. The principal speaker was Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour, Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, who was warmly received. He paid a tribute to the peace efforts of Mr. Chamberlain and other statesmen, the crowd rising to cheer. Peace would never come, he said, merely through the efforts of statesmen or diplomats, but would only be a reality when inborn in the hearts of the people of the world, said Mr. Scrimgeour. Though this was said to be peace with a price, nevertheless the price was nothing to that which war would have involved. An explanation was made of a report widely circulated concerning the Tirau incident. The speaker said that though much larger meetings had been addressed by him at Rotorua and Morrinsville prior to that no mention was published. Owing to his failure to attend a social function at Tirau he was pressed to go to a political meeting, and went on the condition that he would not be asked to speak. During the meeting he learned that the National Party organisation at Matamata, hearing of the two other, meetings, organised a visit to Tirau with the express determination of obstructing him. "When I rose to speak I was merely rising to explain that I was a guest and did not intend to address the meeting. However, there was an uproar in the hall between, two sections, and that was the incident that was widely reported;" : Mr. Scrimgeour emphatically denied that he was conducting political meetings. He was merely doing what anyone would be expected to do in the circumstances. "Against my will I have been thrown into the political arena, and I was only endeavouring to give those people who were interested in my work an opportunity of hearing my side of the story. I have been threatened that I will be the first to get my running shoes in the event of the National Party being elected to office. The whole Friendly Road organisation is threatened with a similar fate, and all we are desirous of doing is to let the public know the true position." ! Cheers were given for Mr. Scrimgeour at the conclusion of the meeting. The text of the resolution is as follows: — "That in view of the Hon. A. Hamilton's expressed intention concerning a new radio policy in the event of his party's success at the coming General Elections, this meeting of 4000 citizens of Auckland resolves that he be asked to advise the Friendly Road of his assurance that "the hours and continuity of the Friendly Road sessions will remain undisturbed, and that all the privileges and conditions now prevailing at IZB for the Friendly Road in their entirety will continue in the event of him and his party becoming the Government of the day." MR. HAMILTON'S REPLY. The Hon. A. Hamilton was interviewed by. the. "New Zealand Herald" by telephone, and his comment on the resolution is reported by the "Herald" today as follows: — •'The organisers of the Friendly Road are apparently as confident as we are of a National Party victory," said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, when the text of the resolution was conveyed to him by telephone at Queenstown by the "Herald" tonight. . "I' am asked to give an assurance that the hours and continuity of the Friendly Road session will remain undisturbed," Mr. Hamilton added, "and also that all privileges and conditions now prevailing at IZB for the Friendly Road will continue in their entirety. In reply I can only say that the Friendly Road organisation will receive absolute justice. It will receive treatment equal to that extended to other organisations with similar objectives which have a legitimate call on the broadcasting facilities of the country. "With regard to privileges, I do not see how the Friendly Road can ask for favoured treatment at the expense of the great religious bodies and other organisations. If it can be shown —and I think it can—that the Friendly Road represents a considerable body of listeners then it will be entitled to stay on the air. Its Children's session, which meets a public demand, has every right to continue, but if the question of privileges includes the right given to one man, to broadcast political propaganda under the guise of religious talk, then that privilege will most certainly disappear. "The whole position boils down to this: The Friendly Road, as an undenominational organisation, has the right to continue, but it has no right to engage in party political propaganda of any kind." ________