CENSORSHIP OF LETTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 36, 12 February 1940, Page 6

CENSORSHIP OF LETTERS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—-There has been a lot of correspondence in your paper in regard to the censoring of correspondence addressed to private individuals and firms overseas. Whoever instigated the censorship must be totally unacquainted with present conditions if he imagines that by just blacking out an unfavourable comment on the Government he is keeping the news from the world. I do not find it necessary to make any comments in my correspondence on New Zealand conditions or the members of the Government, for responsible circles in overseas countries, and in particular in Great Britain, are fully aware of the conditions here. If the censor really wants a job, he should censor commercial correspondence from Great Britain, and he would then read many comments on New Zealand which he ■ might consider should not be read in the Dominion. My correspondence from Great Britain clearly indicates that the commercial community at least is under no illusions as to the conditions out here. All the censors in the world will not keep oversea visitors from expressing their opinions when they return to their own countries, so why waste the harassed taxpayers' money •by paying staffs to black out information in letters to Great Britain which is. and has long been, common knowledge there.—l am, etc CENSORED.