MINISTERS SHOULD PROVE CHARGES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22698, 24 July 1948, Page 5

MINISTERS SHOULD PROVE CHARGES

(11.40 a.nr.) LONDON, July 23. Earl Winterton in the House of Commons declared that Ministers who attacked the British press should give evidence before the Royal Commission on the Press. . . Earl Winterton instanced the Minister of Health, Mr. Aneurin Bevan, who called the British press the “most reactionai'y and most prostituted in the world," and also the Lord President of the Council, Mr. Herbert Morrison, who had said the “suppression, misrepresentation and inventions” occurred day by day in the press. Earl Winterton said it was these Ministers’ duty to substantiate their charges before the commission. Earl Winterton said Mr. Aneurin Bevan's denunciation of the British press was regarded with great weight both at home and abroad because of his high position. The Home Secretary, Mr. Chutcr Ede. in reply, said it did not seem desirable that the Ministers, who would have to consider the Royal Commission's report when it appeared, should give evidence. .Mr. Bevan had been invited to give evidence and had not refused, but the Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee, considered that he should not do so because the matter did not concern his department.