ALARMIST REPORTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 119, 20 April 1932, Page 6

ALARMIST REPORTS.

MESSAGES SENT OVERSEAS. CHECK TO BE IMPOSED. WELLINGTON, April 20.. Ip order to prevent alarmist report* being sent to overseas newspapers of unemployed disturbances in New Zealand, the Government has decided to enforce the provisions of the Postal Regulations empowering the censoring of messages handed in tor transmission abroad. , , . This step lias been taken on the ground that certain news sent overseas might tend to be inimical to the credit of the Dominion, it being maintained that there was clear proof of exaggeration being indulged in as far as messages relating to other outstanding occurrences such as the Murchison and Hawke’s Bay earthquakes were concerned. While the postal authorities will not suppress essential facts or accurate description, they will not sanction the sending of reports that do not represent situations ill the true light, nor will they pass information which is considered confidential, and which in the ordinary course would not be published by the authorities in New Zealand.

An indication that steps in this direction were to be taken by the Government was given by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes in reply to a question by Mr G. C. C. Black (Ind., Motueka), in the House yesterday afternoon. Mr Black asked whether, in view of exaggerated reports sent abroad concerning the Murchison earthquake and the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, as well as the Auckland riots, steps would be- taken, to enforce the Postal Regulations and censor cable messages. The Prime Minister said it was to be regretted that apparently a number of mesasges of an exaggerated kind had been sent to newspapers. The Government was considering the matter with a view to taking appropriate action if necessary.