NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENCE

Southland Times, Issue 23773, 22 March 1939, Page 9

NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENCE

To The Editor Sir, —The moderation shown by the Press in refraining at all times from stampeding public opinion may be a virtue, but it must be admitted that the public has a right to expect that due emphasis be given to glaring acts of barbaric vandalism such as were perpetrated recently upon the national independence of those smaller States bordering the Danube. However, one does understand that the tone of New Zealand newspapers is being modified, unconsciously or intentionally, by the realization that individual freedom in this country is undergoing the identical treatment that is being meted out to the liberties and independence of these central Europe peoples. The verdict of a just mind could not be condemnation of the ruthless acts of that cruel iron-shod heel of Prussian despotism without a like judgment on what those acts are analagous to in New Zealand. The mind that conceives the national octopus whose tentacles in the form of storm troopers shall embrace an ever-expanding surface until its territorial gluttony becomes satiated —such a mind has much in common with the mind that conceives the super communistic State ip whose internal organs all those numerous privileges which comprise personal liberty have become embellished and lost for ever. It is because I believe this that I cannot understand why the Press refuses to print such letters as you have refused from me on the grounds that they are

too outspoken. I contend that The Southland Times is repressing too much in its effort to be fair to the Government. It owes a greater duty to its public. The next few days will see the distribution of dole payment booklets to all women in this country. Nowhere else in the world are women expected to contribute to the parasites of super trades unionism as they will be in this country at the end of this month. Will The Southland Times condone such a violation of the sanctity of human relationships by silence?— Yours, etc.,

J. TROTTER, Jun.

March 21, 1939. [We have not, so far as we can recall, refused any one of our correspondent’s letters on the ground that it was “too outspoken.” The printed explanation that we gave for our refusal of his last letter was this: “A lory* way from the point and too crude_'->-Editor, The Southland Times.]