CENSORSHIP OF OVERSEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 34, 9 February 1940, Page 6

CENSORSHIP OF OVERSEAS

MAIL

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —By today's incoming English mail we have received from our principals the following:—

We acknowledge with thanks receipt of your letters of November

15 and 17, which have been very

badly cut about by the censor, so in future correspondence will you please avoid any comments upon the political situation, and merely confine

your remarks to strict business,

In the first place, I would like to point out that in our letter of November 17 we simply stated as follows:— In conclusion, we sincerely trust the international situation will clarify itself, and once again in the near future peace on earth and good will towards men will rule, together with, we hope, common sense. In our letter of September 15 we stated the following:—

First we would hasten to convey our sincerest regrets at the unfortunate but unavoidable developments of the European situation. There is, of course, no doubt that the action taken by the British Empire was the only possible honourable and just action open to us. It is very gratifying to think how unanimous and solid the Eupire is in these very worrying days, and how optimistic we all seen, of the eventual issue with the hope that this is really the last war to end wars.

We, here in New Zealand, have had a most trying time with import regulations, currencies, high taxation, and various other worries, and, on top of it all comes war. Nevertheless, we mean to "carry on" as a united Empire and do our share to the utmost limits.

j Now, Sir, you are asking us men to fight for freedom, democracy, and all the other things which the writer thought he was fighting for in the last ■war, and to think that our mail is being pried into and such matters as I have given you above is deleted by the censor. Such action is every bit as bad as is taking place in other countries, causing such chaos throughout the world.

Can you or your readers find anything whatever in the extracts of the letters I have given you herewith which any sane-minded British Government could take exception to. Being an old soldier myself I obviously realise the importance of not disclosing movements of ships or matters of a military nature. My principals are wondering how much more has been censored, as they complained of their correspondence being incomplete.

Is this action of the authorities in Sew Zealand in accordance with ritish justice and the law of the country?—l am, etc.,

COCKNEY, AND PROUD OP IT,