“VAILE LETTER” AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 11

“VAILE LETTER” AGAIN

PRIME MINISTER DENIES IT WAS PRIVATE WRITER CAN INSPECT (THE SL’.YS Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDG., Today. A denial that the “Vaile letter” was private correspondence between Mr. Coates and Mr. E. E. Vaile. but that the letter was on the official Public Works file was given in an interview today by the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward. “I notice/* said Sir Joseph. ”that Mr. E. E. Vaile in the commencement of his letter to the Press regarding the Rotorua-Taupo railway makes the following statement ‘just how the Prime Minister obtained access to my private correspondence with his predecessor I am at a loss to understand.’ “It is not my intention to make any comments with regard to the remainder of Mr. Vaile’s letter,” continued the Prime Minister, “but I feel that it is necessary to answer his opening remarks just referred to. I would like to say that I have no access to any private correspondence addressed to my predecessor, Mr. Coates. Naturally, any private correspondence h > had. he would have taken away wit h him. The letter 1 referred to is on the official file of the Public Work - Department for the Rotorua-Tainy line, and is not marked ‘private’ or ’confidential/ “If it had been, of course, no reference would have been made to it by me. Should Mr. Vaile so desire, shall be glad at any time when he is in Wellington, to show him the official file, where he can see the letter for himself.”