The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 13. 1921. BEYOND ALL REASON.

Southland Times, Issue 19249, 13 June 1921, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JUNE 13. 1921. BEYOND ALL REASON.

There does not seem to be any limit to the amount of censorship that the government in this country is desirous of imposing. From the censorship of films, the country has proceeded to restrictions on literature, news and speech until it is difficult to prophesy where the end will be. The latest excursion in this restrictive science is the instruction to the Telegraph Department establishing a Ministerial censorship over cable messages of a particular class sent from this country. The instruction must be perused in order that its full significance may be appreciated:

No telegram purporting to express the views of any New Zealand Minister of the Crown on any Imperial question affecting any problem connected with the association of the United Kingdom and New Zealand in peace or war is to be permitted to be despatched beyond New Zealand by telegraph without the written authority of the Minister concerned.

Any such cable message handed in without ministerial approval is to be refused. It may be argued, cf course, that it is in the interests of..the dominion and of the

Empire that incorrect versions of ministerial utterances should not be sent broadcast over the world, but the authority contained in this instruction goes much further since it enables the minister to prohibit any reference to his speech being sent beyond the borders of New Zealand. Inquiries prosecuted in Wellington have led to the opinion in some quarters that this new censorship has no legal authority, not even under the War Regulations Continuance Act, 1920, and certainly an examination of the law on the subject does not reveal any power retained by the government as a legacy from the war period justifying their latest move. But whether or not the Attorney-General is able to unearth some shadow of legal authority, the fact remains that the continuation of a censorship of news, imposed as a war measure, is repugnant to all of our ideas of liberty. The mainstay of the democratoc system under British government has always been freedom of discussion. The freedom of the Press is no small thing in the system of government that we revere, but the ministers of late seem to have developed a marked tenderness in this matter, and they are displaying an eagerness to interfere with ordinary channels for the distribution of news and views, which says little for their knowledge of the modern state. It has been demonstrated over and over again that a censorship in times other than war, works a tremendous harm in any country. Political censorship, no matter what form it takes, is pernicious and it is bound sooner or later to have results quite opposite to those which its authors hope to achieve. Sir Francis Bell has promised to make a statement on this matter. We hope that it will not be delayed, but we can agree with the Lyttelton Times that

no statement he can make on the matter will be considered satisfactory by the people of this country unless it is coupled with an assurance that this peculiar lapse from British traditions is to be terminated immediately.

To that view we unhesitatingly subscribe. This latest development of ministerial interference is beyond all reason.