SENTIMENTS DISCLAIMED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26540, 15 August 1947, Page 9

SENTIMENTS DISCLAIMED

STATEMENT BY JOURNALISTS’ PRESIDENT CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORT P.A. WELLINGTON, Aug. 14. The president of the New Zealand Journalists’ Association, Mr D. K. Gunn, stated to-day that the article accredited to Mr Quentin Pope in the Chicago Tribune, referred to in the House of Representatives yesterday, was discussed at a meeting of the National Council of the association this week. “Mr Pope is not a member of our association, and the council dissociates itself entirely from the sentiments implied in the despatch,” said Mr Gunn. Unfortunately the courtesy gesture of a generous display of United States flags during Lord Montgomery’s drive through Wellington could be misinterpreted in the context of the report, said Mr Gunn. Instances undoubtedly occurred, especially if two children were together for the occasion, where one had bought a Union Jack and the other the Stars and Stripes. “There is no denying that the report, taken as a whole, gives an 'entirely false impression of the sentiments of New Zealanders, and of our real appreciation of the achievements of .other war leaders, but it was pointed out at the council meeting that the fault might lie with the handling of Mr Pope’s despatch by the Tribune’s staff,” said Mr Gunn. “ Wherever the responsibility rests for creating the impression which the story did, I am sure no member of our association would have had any part in such a misleading report.”