DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26958, 18 December 1948, Page 7

DIFFICULT PROBLEM

MORE DOLLARS REQUIRED

OVERSEAS NEWS SERVICE

N ZP A—Copy right

Rec- 11 p.m. MELBOURNE, Dec. 17. Reviewing the year’s work at the annual meeting of the Australian Associated Press, the chairman, Mr R. A. Henderson, said members bad received nearly 3,000,000 words from overseas.in the AAP service, of which 500,000 had come from AAP—Reuter correspondents in the South-East Asia and Pacific areas.

The increasing importance to Australia of happenings in Japan, China, Indonesia, and elsewhere had provided justification for the decision of the- association to secure its news of this vital territory from its own correspondents. This full and factual service had been established in partnership with Reuter, and the results had been highly satisfactory. The Reuter partnership had proved one of the wisest things the association had done. Mr Henderson said that one of the year’s most difficult problems was that of dollars. The AAP could not obtain an adequate cover of the world’s news unless it was allowed more dollars. It had agreed to the Commonwealth Government’s suggestion a year ago that expenditure should be cut to an absolute minimum, which barely permitted the continuance of a service pruned down to essentials. Rising costs in the meantime had forced the association to seek correspondingly more dollars, but they had been refused. The. public must be informed, and they could not be unless the basic news services were maintained. Any interference with basic news would be gravely detrimental to the national interest. Sir Keith Murdoch said the dollar position was fantastic. There was no other country in the world in which dollars were refused for the service of news and actualities. “We might as well open a vein and let out some of our blood as deny ourselves information of happenings in other parts of the world, particularly in these days,” he added.