Public Platform Political Propaganda

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 112, 13 May 1941, Page 4

Public Platform Political Propaganda

OPPOSITION LEADER’S PROTEST Ter Press Association. INVERCARGILL. Alay 12. A telegram protesting against' what he calls a flagrant breach of the agreement between the Government and the Opposition parties was sent to-day to the acting-Prime Alinister (Hon. W. Nash) by the leader of the Opposition (Air. fc>. G. Holland) who is at present in Invercargill. The agreement wa» ‘ 1 to minimise public platform political propaganda” and Air. Holland contends that recent statements by the Ministers of Health and Indusries and Commerce have broken the terms of this agreement. The full text of Air. Holland’s telegram is as follows: “With a desire to promote national unity I made an agreement with tho Primo Minister to minimise public platform political propaganda for a certain period and I have strictly observed that arrangement, declining to permit any publicity for my speeches. At party meetings last week the newspapers gave full puDiicity to a violent attack on the medical profession by the Alinister of Health and later the Alinister of Industries and Commerce issued a purely propaganda statement about industiial licensing. “I regard these published statements as a flagrant breach of the arrangement agreed to by the Prime Alinister and unless I receive an assurance that such breaches of the arrangement will not be repeated I shall understand that the Government does not intend to honour the arrangement and shall act accordingly.

”The public is heartily sick of this constant persecution of doctors, especially when so many of them are sacrificing so much to tend our sick and wounded countrymen on foreign battlefields and more especially seeing that the doctors have complied with every requirement of the law. “Please let me have a prompt reply as to whether similar publicity to Ministerial propaganda is to be permitted in the future.”