SHIFTING HIS GROUND

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 4

SHIFTING HIS GROUND

The first statement of Mr. McLagan, Minister of Industrial Man-power, was that the conference of newspaper editors to whom the man-power report was explained admitted that they could not have done anything better than what the Government had done. This was flatly contradicted, and it was pointed out that there was no time for real discussion. Most of the day was given to Ministerial and .official statements and a smaller part to questions and answers. Now Mr. McLagan shifts his ground. He passes by his original unsupported statement of editorial approval and says the editors "found time to discuss many little trifles, such as whether Bill Smith should have been drafted into the Army after he had lodged an appeal." This is petty and misleading. One or two specific instances brought to the notice of newspapers may have been given in questions asked for the purpose of clarifying policy and administration, but the idea that the conference concentrated on trivialities is wholly incorrect. The majority of editors were neither trivial in their approach to this

issue nor so foolish (as Mr. McLagan would apparently have had them be) as to obediently become "yes-men" to a scheme before they had been able to study the mass of facts placed before them. Furthermore, when men are invited to a conference* which is confidential and is not reported it is quite unfair that a Minister, after a lapse of six months, should try to- score political points by giving a one-sided version of proceedings.