APPEALS AND PUBLICITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 4

APPEALS AND PUBLICITY

Members of Armed Forces Appeal Boards (which are judicial bodies charged with important functions) have a difficult task to perform, and generally they carry out their duties with ability and fairness. It cannot be said, however, that remarks made by Mr. P. M. Butler, at a sitting of the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday, were either judicial or relevant to the point at issue—the service obligations of eighty grade 1 waterside workers.' Mr. Butler suggested that the presence of representatives of the Press at the sitting was an indication that the nev/spapers were singling out waterfront appeals for special attention, and he went on to make the charge that | this constituted some form of "political manoeuvring." In view of the general tenor of Mr. Butler's remarks, this is a charge which must rebound on his own head. Armed Forces Appeal Boards have been sitting. in Wellington for over two years, and in that time they have dealt with thousands of individual cases, a great number of which were based on personal grounds and did not involve issues of public interest. In view of limitations on our space and staff difficulties, it would have been manifestly impossible to report all these proceedings, even to the extent of recording the names of the appellants and the decisions of the board.

In certain cases, however, questions of public interest have arisen, and the newspapers have considered it their duty to report the proceedings, not with the object of singling out particular industries or individuals for special attention but in order to inform the public on questions which are of concern to them. Clearly a case in which the issue is whether grade 1 men should be retained in an important industry or whether they should enter the Armed Forces involves a question of public interest, and for that reason should be reported, just as cases in which individuals holding important public positions are appealed for should be given publicity. It is to be regretted that Mr. Butler has seen fit to use his position as a deputy member of the board to make an altogether unjustified attack on the Press.