CABLE CENSORSHIP

Southland Times, Issue 19256, 21 June 1921, Page 5

CABLE CENSORSHIP

AN UNEXPECTED RESULT. REGULATIONS PUBLISHED IN LONDON (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, June 20. Mention was made last week of censorship regulations forbidding the dispatch of cablegrams which expressed the opinions of Ministers on matters affecting Imperial affairs except with the signed consent of the Minister’s concerned. This regulation, which was defended rather half-heartedly by Sir Francis Bell, loked like an attempt to prevent reports of ministerial statements reaching London during Mr Massey’s Imperial Conference discussion and loan negotiations. Its actual effect has been to make trouble. The censorship was enforced here, but the regulation was published and was cabled to London from Melbourne. A few days later its publication in London brought messages from Mr Massey to his colleagues here. Just what he said is not disclosed, but the censorship is understood to have been lifted. Sir Francis Bell is going to make a statement on the subject to-morrow. LABOUR MEMBERS’, PROTEST. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 20. A telegram from Christchurch stated that three Labour M.P.’s, Messrs McCombs, Howard, and Sullivan, had sent a telegram, which was quoted, to the Acting Prime Minister protesting against the censorship of news sent beyond the dominion and against the Government’s “usurping the law-making functions of Parliament.” Sir Francis Bell, asked if he had any reply to make, stated that he had not received the telegram, but a letter to the effect quoted had just reached him. He expressed satisfaction with the emphatic insistence by the three members upon obedience to the law, and his concurrence with their own view that all organisations, including the Government, should regard it as a duty to comply strictly with the provisions of the law as they found it in the Statute book.