REPORTS OF SPEECHES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 163, 11 June 1936, Page 6

REPORTS OF SPEECHES.

MR FORBES’S COMPARISON. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, June 10. Following a long series of Labour speakers who complained to the House about inadequate reporting of Labourviews in the newspapers. Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (Leader of the Opposition) called them very ungrateful. These members, he said, had received flattering notices —but look at the reports of those opposed to the Government! The Opposition was given tabloid treatment, whereas everything the Prime Minister said was published in extenso. If under these circumstances the Prime Minister thought the newspapers were not giving him a fair run, what would he expect from broadcasting? So far as the Opposition was concerned, he saw little hope for them on the radio if the Leader of the Government wanted all messages of a flattering character to go over. Mr Savage Seemed to object very much to newspaper criticism, to which lie was extremely sensitive, but, he would recall for the Prime Minister’s benefit an incident which happened when he (the speaker) first came to Parliament, ana one of the leading members of the Opposition boasted that he never troubled to prepare speeches, because he could always take the leader of a prominent Opposition newspaper. “But if the. present Opposition have to rely on the leading columns of the Press for criticism ol the Government,” added Mr Forbes, ‘‘it would ho very mild. They have done their best to present the Government’s legislation in the most favourable light, but the Prime Minister cannot expect to be receiving bouquets all the time.” “I’ve said just the opposite, ’ corrected the Primh Minister. “1 have said that if the Press were with me all tbe tune l would think there was something wrong with me and with themBut l think 1 ought to be right sometimes.” (Laughter.) “One can only laugh at the suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition that the newspapers have turned over to the Government,” remarked' the Postmaster-General in his reply to the debate. He would regard such a phenomenon as to-day’s joke, and the Labour Party would certainly have to have a look at itself. Rev. C. Carr: There would be hope for the world then. (Laughter.)