“LETTER TAKEN FROM PARKED CAR”:Mr. Holmes

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22826, 22 December 1948, Page 6

“LETTER TAKEN FROM PARKED CAR”:Mr. Holmes

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 22

The documents handed by the acting Prime Minister, Mr. W. Nash, to the press and published yesterday were taken from a departmental ear near Parliament Buildings on November 2(5, said Mr. Cecil Holmes, film director of the National Film Unit, in a statement last night.

Mr. Holmes said he reported lo the police on November 27 that his satchel and departmental camera equipment had been stolen from the ear. The police told him yesterday that they had still not been found.

Mr. Holmes continued: “In view of the serious allegations that, have been made 1 wish to make this statement. It is a matter of some interest and, I will show, a matter of some concern to everyone as to how Mr. Nash obtained the original copies of the correspondence from myself to Mr. Lewin and as well resolutions supposedly in Mr. Lewin’s handwriting.

Outside Parliament Buildings

“The facts are these. On the evening of November 26 about 6 o'clock I parked a departmental car, which contained my satchel and a good deal of camera equipment, outside Parliament Buildings just a few yards from the Bowen street entrance and directly opposite it. On emerging some time later I found that the car had been wheeled round to the back of Parliament Buildings and that my satchel and movie camera, worth some £250 and the property of the department, had been removed.

“The satchel contained mostly departmental matters, and as well some per sonal matters among which were the documents referred to.

“Promptly, on the following morning I reported the matter in some detail to the police and also, of course, to the department. On Monday I asked tho police if they had traced any of these articles. They said they had not. Peculiar Circumstances “It should be noted that the removal occurred in most peculiar circumstances on the very evening of the day on which it whs proposed to hold a stopwork meeting. By means which Mr. Nash does not choose lo disclose the published documents found 1 heir way into the hands of the acting-Prime Minister.

“The rather rough and ready idiom employed in my totter to Mr. Lewin is not to be taken too literally. After all I did spend five years in the Navy. “Since this matter has appeared in the press I have been suspended from the public service pending an inquiry. The reason given for this suspension (which is immediate) by the actinghead of the Information Section of the Prime Minister’s Department, Mr. C. H. Williams, is, in his own words, ‘in view of statements appearing in the press this morning.’ “I would put the following questions: “1. How did Mr. Nash ' obtain these documents?

Reason For Suspension Sought “2. There has been no attack an rriy ability as a public servant, nor can it be shown that I have ever at any time been instrumental in holding up the flow of production at the Government Film Studios. In fact, no stop-work meeting was ever held. Why, then, should I be suspended? Because I am an active trade unionist? Or is it because Mr. Nash hopes to drag a large, red whale across the path of the public service claims? "3. Has the acting-Prime Minister, on the other hand, any rights under the law to publish copies of the private correspondence of ordinary law-abiding people? My permission was never asked for their publication. Why didn’t he hand them over to the police for return to me?

"4. Since when has a Prime Minister, acting or otherwise, earned the right to meddle in the domestic affairs of a trade union? “5. An inquiry into this whole business will be held sometime in the future. If Mr. Nash wants an honest inquiry, why does he try to prejudice the whole case in the eyes of public servants and the public by publishing these documents and alleg-

ing a Communist conspiracy?

“Finally, I may say that I am contemplating legal action in the matter," concluded Mr. Holmes.