BROADCAST BY RADIO

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19759, 13 October 1938, Page 2

BROADCAST BY RADIO

MR. SCRIMGEOUR'S ACTION STRIKING COMMENT MADE HON. W. PERRY'S LETTER The "chain letter" attacking the Catholic Church was the subject of reference by the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour, in a broadcast address over the commercial stations on Sunday night. Any connection with the letter on the part of the National Party has been denied toy the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, but in addition the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., of Wellington, has addressed the following open letter to Mr. Scrimgeour:--Dear Mr. Scrimgeour,—Last night I heard you read over the air the notorious chain letter attacking the Catholic Church which lias been in circulation for some time past and a copy of which lies before me. As a Catholic I appreciate your condemnation of the vile effusion which is thoroughly offensive to all who profess the same faith as I do. "No doubt this letter has reached thousands of people, including Catholics. But thousands of people, including Catholics, have never seen it. Why, then, did you read it last night, thus giving it a wider circulation than ever before an J sending it into numberless homes hitherto uncontaminated toy it? "The letter is headed thus: "This is a chain letter. Please copy three times and pass on." How many times, metaphorically speaking, did you copy it and pass it on last night? The authors must indeed have been delighted to find in you such a convenient and inexpensive means of disseminating their deplorable sectarian propaganda.

I do not believe that you read the letter for the purpose of assisting its authors. I believe you read it with the object cf discrediting the National Party. The letter exhorts the people to return the National Party to power, thereby conveying at least the implication that the National Party had some cognisance of it. If, in reading it, you did not intend to discredit the National Party, why did you not tell your listeners that the letter has been publicly disclaimed and condemned toy the Hon. Adam Hamilton, the leader of that party? Or did you deliberately omit to tell your listeners this so that the implication I have mentioned would toe conveyed to your Catholic listeners who had not read either the letter or the disclaimers?

"Please let me assure you that this letter is not being written at the instigation of the National Party or any member of it. Nor does any member of that party know that x am writing it. I am sending it to the press to-day for publication, and at the same time am sending you a copy so that you will have an opportunity of immediate reply—Yours faithfully, pERRY _