MR SCRIMGEOUR’S RADIO SPEECH

Southland Times, Issue 23584, 11 August 1938, Page 6

MR SCRIMGEOUR’S RADIO SPEECH

VIGOROUS REPLY IN DEBATE IN HOUSE CONTROLLER’S RESIGNATION IN HANDS OF GOVERNMENT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 10. A full afternoon was devoted in the House of Representatives yesterday to a discussion on the broadcast speech delivered on Sunday night by the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, Mr C. G. Scrimgeour. Although Opposition members lost some of the force of their arguments by the announcement that Mr Scrimgeour had tendered his resignation, they maintained that events justified their original contention that Mr Scrimgeour should not have been appointed to the position. The announcement that Mr Scrimgeour had tendered his resignation to the Government was made by the Prime Minister and Minister of Broadcasting (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), who said the resignation had not yet been dealt with. Few attempts were made from the Government Benches to condone the language contained in Mr Scrimgeour’s broadcast, and the acting Minister of Broadcasting (the Hon. F. Jones), admitted that if the script of the address had been seen beforehand the address itself would not have been permitted. The chief point made by Government members was that the Opposition had really provoked Mr Scrimgeour’s outburst.