VISITOR REBUKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23702, 9 January 1939, Page 7

VISITOR REBUKED

MR WELLS IN AUSTRALIA REFERENCES TO DICTATORS SYDNEY, Jan. 6. “ I would prefer that Mr Wells should exercise his undoubted gifts for the promotion of international understanding, rather than international misunderstanding.” remarked Mr J. A. Lyons, the Prime Minister of Australia, in rebuking Mr H. G. Wells for his description of Herr Hitler as “a certifiable lunatic,” and Signor Mussolini as a “ fantastic renegade from the Socialist movement.” REACTION IN BERLIN REBUKE GIVES SATISFACTION BERLIN, Jan. 7. (Received Jan. 8, at 6.30 p.m.) Semi-official diplomatic correspondence welcomes Mr Lyons’s protest against Mr Wells’s statements. It declares that Mr Lyons shows a pleasing adherence to the good traditions of civilised nations and contrasts his action with the “ degenerate manner in which certain political disputes have been carried on recently, oblivious to normal diplomatic practice.” MR WELLS’S RETORT “ ONE FREE MAN TO ANOTHER ” MELBOURNE, Jan. 8. (Received Jan. 8, at 9 p.m.) In a speech at the Pen dinner on Saturday night. Mr H. G. Wells tersely answered the Prime Minister’s rebuke. He said: Mr Lyons had a perfect right to say my remarks about dictators were m the worst possible taste. After all he has done nothing official against me, and so far I have not been hampered, but as one free man to another I insist on freedom for Mr Lyons to express his opinion.”