LINES TAPPED

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 February 1947, Page 4

LINES TAPPED

TELEPHONE TALKS THREE COMPLAINTS MADE IN ;?'WELLINGTON ' SYSTEM OF MONITORING A-belief that telephone■ communications are being tapped in Wellington by an official agency is held in quarters’widely different in their interests. Three, complaints have been made to the New Zealand Herald political correspondent, and one complainant said that a colleague also had strong suspicions. Uneasiness and alarm are being created by this alleged action, which is described as savouring of the German Gestapo. The complainants were the head of a civilian Government department, a senior officer in a service department, and a prominent trade union official. Each was certain that information that had become known elsewhere could only have been obtained from monitoring either local or toll telephone conversations. There was no suggestion that the leakage, was due to ordinary post and telegraph operatives, who were entirely exonerated. Confirmation of Suspicions. When the suggestion of monitoring was put to the head of a Government department he nodded assent. “It is curious you should mention that,” he said. “I have' had my suspicions for some time, and they have been confirmed as far as I am concerned. I was rung by another Government official in a different department and was about to give him some important information when he said, ‘Don’t give that over the phone. Don’t you know they are listening in?’ ” On further questioning, he said that the man he had spoken to was the head of another department (Government) . After an inquiry at a service department, the Herald political correspondent was told not to telephone back for further information, but to call personally. “You know, they are monitoring us, just as they did when the war was on,” said a senior officer. Several other officers confirmed this view.

Union Official’s Belief. A trade union official gave three instances when, he said, he believed conversations of his were monitored. Two were long-distance toll calls. Certain information had gone into other hands, and it could only have come from telephone conversations. Obviously, none of the informants was prepared to disclose his name foi publication, but each said he proposed to be extremely careful as to what he communicated over the telephone m future. , , The Herald political correspondent had an appointment with a leading public figure, who requested that a personal call be made and that the telephone be not used, as he has suspicions about his line being monitored.