COST CRITICISED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22445, 27 September 1947, Page 3

COST CRITICISED

PUBLICITY WORK PROPAGANDA CHARGE PREMIER DEFENDS STAFF (P.R.) WELLINGTON. Sept. 27. The discussion of the operations of the publicity and information sections of the Prime Minister's Department were the main topics debated by speakers in the House of Representatives yesterday morning when the Estimates for the department were under consideration. Previous Prime Ministers had been able to carry on their departments with staffs of about three, but today the department had a staff of 185, said Mr. F. W. Doidge (Oppos., Tauranga). Of these 86 were on the Prime Minister’s own administrative staff. Spectators in the House must often have been amused by the procedure which went on during a debate, he said. Government members. Hear. hear. “Back Room Boys’’

Sometimes, continued Mr. Doidge, an Opposition member who was speaking made a telling point and before he had completed his speech someone rushed into the House with a sheaf of papers. What had happened was that the “back room boys" in the Information Section had been listening in over the air and, hearing the telling point raised by the Opposition speaker, had immediately rushed to the assistance of the Government side by bringing down a dossier which could be used as ammunition.

During election time, said Mr. Doidge. candidates were mystified by letters which appeared in the correspondence columns of the press. Whence did they come? When they were printed readers recognised the names with which they

were signed, but at the same time they knew in many cases that the people who were supposed to have written them were quite incapable of writing that type of letter, Mr. Doidge had no right to attack public servants, said the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser. He. Mr. Fraser, was the person to whom the attack should be directed. High Standard Demanded

So far as the Information Section was concerned, he added, there was room for a difference of opinion. So far as the External Affairs Section was concerned the standard demanded of the employees was very exacting. The country had to have men of integrity, capacity and competency to handle its dealings in foreign and Commonwealth relationships. Mr. F. Langstone (Govt., Roskill) suggested that there was more room for New Zealand documentary films instead of what he called “a lot of silly nonsense" which was shown. If American films were curtailed it would, he said, not do much harm.

Mr. J. R, Hanan (Oppos., Invercargill) referred to advertisements published during the election campaign suggesting increased security for widows. They appeared to have been produced by the Government and were nothing more or less than a “prostitution of Parliamentary democracy and an absolute abuse of power." An absolute denial that any election pamphlets or advertising were prepared by State departments was made by Mr. M. Moohan (Govt., Petone), the former national secretary of the Labour Party. These were all compiled, he said, in the party’s national office. He hoped the Film Unit would be extended and he believed it to be the most popular item in the theatres. Film Unit Praised

Mr. T. L. MacDonald (Oppos., Wallace) agreed with previous speakers who had also praised the quality of the work done by the Film Unit and the national studio, adding that this should not be under the wing of the Prime Minister of any country. If the position got desperate politically there was a risk of insidious propaganda being introduced. He wanted to know if exhibitors had the right to refuse to show these films.

He recalled that a film “praising the housing scheme to the skies’’ was used by the Minister of Housing. Mr. R. Semple, at Labour Party meetings. “The National Party could have got it, too,” commented Mr. A. G. Osborne (Govt., Onehunga). The Minister of Lands, Mr. C. F. Skinner, said he wished the National Flm Unit vote was £1,240,000, instead of £49,000. Private firms had borrowed its films because' they were so useful in showing many aspects of industry and national activity.