TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19455, 20 December 1934, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Munitions Inquiry

“ Several South American countries were much concerned by the results of the recent American munitions inquiry,” writes Professor Henry Grcttnn Boyle, in Current History. “ While newspaper comments generally made a distinction between the United States Government ns an official entity and the Senate Committee (or, more important, the witnesses appearing before it), the various charges and claims brought out in the hearings gave rise to popular resentment.

“The South American peoples as a whole no doubt feel that in spite of annoyances to individuals and groups the general effect of the hearings lias been beneficial. This point of view was expressed in an editorial in La Prensa of Buenos Aires which condemned the Argentine protest.

“‘The public character of the hearings,’ the editorial explained, Mias given the Argentines mentioned an opportunity to dear their names, which would not be the case if the hearings were private and the charges made public after they were dead. The fact that the defamation occurred on a site belonging to the legislative branch of the United States Government does not nntke that government any more responsible than if it had occurred somewhere else. If Argentine officials were libelled, they wore libelled by Witnesses, not by any one connected with the United States Government.’ ”