WRITING OF LETTERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23042, 20 May 1938, Page 12

WRITING OF LETTERS

HON. W. NASH'S CHARGE STAFF DENIAL ACCEPTED VIEWS- NOT INSPIRED [by telegraph —rREss association] WELLINGTON, Thursday In a statement Inst evening, tha Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, referred to a letter in which the literary staff of the Dominion took exception to the Minister's remark at Lower Hutt on Monday that the staff of the Dominion were instructed to write letters to the editor condemning the Government. "I accept the assurance that no member of the staff has ever been instructed by the editor or management to write letters to the editor on any subject whatever, much less on politics," said the Minister. "It would be helpful to good journalists if a like assurance could be given that no letter published in the Dominion originated in the Dominion office, and that all anonymous letters published in the Dominion were from bona-fide readers writing to the editor entirely independent oi the Dominion or the National Party." Commenting editorially, the Dominion says:—"lt is to the credit of Mr. Nash that he now admits the paucity of the charge he made against this paper and its staff. It would have been still more to his credit had he allowed the matter to rest there. Both the National Party and the Labour Party, and also supporters of those parties, have at different tirties written letters to this paper, and their letters have been published. No correspondence is inspired, as is suggested by tho Minister,; in this office. Correspondents who prefer to write anonymously and who deal with questions of public interest, are within reason as much entitled to air their opinions in the public Press as they are to exercise their votes under tho secrecy of tho ballot box. It is necessary at times as a safeguard against victimisation, and more necessary to-day, perhaps, than ever."