PAPERS FOR NEUTRALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16253, 12 June 1916, Page 6

PAPERS FOR NEUTRALS.

CENSORSHIP REGULATIONS. IMPERIAL INSTRUCTIONS. [by TELEGRAPH. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.J Wellington*, Sunday. A Question 1 regarding the censorship of • newspapers posted in New Zealand by private individuals to residents of neutral countries, particularly America, was asked in the House on Friday by Mr. J. A. Young (Waikato). He said he understood that newspapers posted from newspaper offices in the office's original/ wrappers were "> ' allowed to go through the post to neutral countries. If, however, private individuals posted newspapers in other wrappers they were not allowed to go out of the country.. He asked whether the Government would make an arrangement whereby persons posting newspapers to friends in neutral = countries could first take them to the postmaster and satisfy him that there was nothing in them containing an illicit cod? message or anything likely to be used to the detriment of our* military position. He had heard that many newspapers addressed to neutral countries had been destroyed without the knowledge of the people post* ing them. The Postmaster-General, Sir JosepK Ward, stated that the censorship of news-, papers passing through the post was carried out under the direction of the military authorities in the Old Country, and that the system could not be altered in the Dominion. Single newspapers in wrappers did not, in any case, go to neutral countries unless they were forwarded by the publishers or their agents. The object of , the restriction was to prevent papers being sent out of the country to persons in foreign countries, and used in any way to the advantage of the enemy. It was not a question of the New Zealand Postal Department or of New Zealand censorship. The regulations no doubt imposed an inconvenience, but it was better to suffer this inconvenience than for information f' which might be in the newspapers to be j t; made use of by the enemy. * Mr. Poole: Have people who _ posS newspapers not been notified of their de-t / struction? , Sir Joseph Ward said all these news* j:gjgg papers could not be returned to the send- 1 s'vj era, and as they must be disposed of they . were being destroyed. What was being^ done in regard to postage had been notw gf|g - fied from end to end of th» Dominion, WSB . '• 1 ■ ~ |iSg