No Secrecy And No Supression, Says Mr. Nash

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 November 1948, Page 5

No Secrecy And No Supression, Says Mr. Nash

“There has been no secrecy concerning reports from the scene of the air disaster as is alleged in a Press Association message from Ohakune published this morning,” said the acting Prime Minister, Mr. Nash, on Saturday. "No instruction that there should be any suppression was issued by me, by any officer of the Prime Minister’s Department or by senior officers of the police and Air Departments. In particular, 1 wish to point out that the publicity section of the Prime Minister’s Department was not involved in any wav and reference to it must have been a figment of the imagination. . “The report is one which, published unchecked, deserves the fullest inquiry. Far from there being any secrecy the reverse was the case. The Air Department, because of inquiries from both the Press and public, established a small information section of its own al the control centre and it worked effectively. It was treated, of course, to take the task of handling that traffic off those directly concerned with the organisation and conduct of the search. “On the spot at Karioi. the forward base, the Air Department’s facilities for sending and receiving reports were provided under difficulty, tin til the later provision of wireless equipment in a small van there was one 12-party telephone line only. At no time was anv action taken to prevent proper release of information. Any reasonable person would understand. The Press Association's Ohakune correspondent said on Saturday that it was not a figment of his imagination that no information would be issued except through the Prime Minister’s Department. He was told that by an Air Force officer.