BOOK CENSORSHIP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 2

BOOK CENSORSHIP

Sir— May I congratulate you on your editorial on the censorship of literature? There is a vital principle at stake in this matter. It is a question of whether the people shall decide what they want or whether the Government or Mr. Nash shall continue to decide what is good for the people. In his statement Mr. Nash referred to “literature which the Government desired should be imported. How long will we have to put up with what our elected servants desire we should have? Using his powers under the import control system, Mr. Nash says we can import champagne but not beer and we can get cigars but not cigarettes. Champagne and cigars may be good for us, in Mr. Nash’s opinion, but few of us can afford to buy them. Now Mr. Nash wants to say what we can read and what we cannot. So far as obscene or seditious literature is concerned there is ample protection of the public under the existing law. Mr. Nash should know this. But now Mr. Nash wants to be the sole judge—to enforce his wishes and his opinions upon- the people whom he was elected to serve. Surely, it is time we had a little more democracy and a little less dictatorshlP‘ DEMOS.