MUZZLING THE PRESS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16539, 5 January 1928, Page 11

MUZZLING THE PRESS

POSITION IN EUROPE INTERVIEW WITH MR. R. BELL Before leaving Vancouver on November 19 for Japan, Mr. Robert Bell, of Christchurch, was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun. Air. Bell is president of the Press Congress of the World, and in the interview he said : “Muzzling and subsidising of the press in Italy, Rumania and other European countries, now existent and being further attempted, is of great concern to the congress. Freedom of the press is our great object. Wo consider it an ideal closely allied with personal liberty and freedom. The congress is opposed to these efforts of European Governments to censor and suppress all nows that may not be favorable to the Governments in power. News is and should bo public property,” Basing Ins opinions on observations made recently by him in Budapest and Vienna, where ho visited before going to New York, Mr. Bell added: “The self-deterirrination phases of the Treaty of Trianon have broken up countries and large populations. They have denationalised the countries of Austria and Hungary, so to speak, and created much unhappiness. The treaty has created a situation comparable to that existing in Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian war. Rumania, Italy, Jugo-Slavia and Czecho-Slokakia are profiting by the treaty in getting territory at the expense of Austria and Hungary, which countries are powerless under tho -treaty to obtain redress. YOUTH AND VIGOUR

“I was greatly impressed upon entering Canada from the North Atlantic, and sailing up tlio mighty St. Lawrence, with tho enormous potentialities of this dominion,” Mr. Bell remarked. “That giant waterway seemed to me to tap the very heart of tho great American continent. 1 found that goods can ho shipped from the head of the 'Great Lakes through to tho St. Lawrence and so on to all points of tho Empire. “As time goes on, this condition must ' increase the prosperity of Canada. If ! tho United States of America is at tho moment the most prosperous country in the world, then 1 would say that Canada is tho most optimistic, and justly so. Canada seems to me to be pulsating with youth and vigour. Iler immdhse.-forest and mineral resources [are being exploited successfully and ■there'is an uplift in her trade outlook. HUitUUE It AGING ■ U.S.A. 1 “If tho futuro is bright for Canada, I cannot think that it is so bright for i the United States. Whilo the countries of Europe were engaged for years attempting to destroy ©aeh other, the United States was busy at work extending her business and trade into every country in tho world. Her export trade during these years grow enor- , mously. I “Europe is now at peaco and is hard at work. 1 recently passed through eight countries of Northern and Central ■ Europe and found that all of the populations of those countries were hard at work. The people are working longer | and taking smaller pay and they ire endeavoring to recapture the trade they lost. They must eventually succeed, and that will mean a slackening af production in the United States and a consequent decline in wages. "What effect this will have on the working peoplo of the United States is not difficult to forecast. They have not only spent, all they have earned, but they have mortgaged the future to i large extent by purchasing luxury articles on tho time-payment. system. If, therefore, wages fall in America, what effect will that havo on a population which has been so spendthrift'!'"