LETTER OPENED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1943, Page 4

LETTER OPENED

MR. HOLLAND PROTESTS

POST OFFICE CENSORSHIP

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 24. , A protest against interference with his personal correspondence by the Censorship Department has been made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland) to the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser). In his letter, Mr. Holland complained that the case of interference was not the first he had experienced. Mr. Holland's letter, dated January 22, to the Prime Minister, read: "A few days ago, I forwarded by air mail to my office in Wellington a communication containing highly confidential and strictly private information of great importance and addressed as follows: —Private Secretary, Leader of the Opposition, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. Four official stamps were used for postage. While that communication was in the hands of ihe Postfi Office it was opened and examined by an official of the Censorship Department before being delivered. , "I must enter the strongest possible protest against this interference with my private correspondence and with my right to use the internal postal services as a legitimate means of communication without risk of important documents being interfered with. As you know, the correspondence of Ministers of the Crown is exempt from censorship. • . "I regret to say that this is not the first occasion on which my personal mail has been subject to interference, and following so soon after the recent occasion when an : important public statement I wished to make was suppressed by the Director of Publicity, you can appreciate that I feel very strongly in the matter."