AN HONEST PRESS RETRACTATION.

New Zealand Tablet, 31 July 1919, Page 13

AN HONEST PRESS RETRACTATION.

. It is quite refreshing to find a capitalistic organ voluntarily retracting a calumny for which it is responsible in regard to some party or nation. It will be remembered that some months ago the Australian press published a statement to the effect that the Russian Soviet Government had passed a law "nationalising, the women of Russia." The English journal which was responsible for starting and spreading what has been proved to be an infamous falsehood was the New Europe, a weekly magazine of great weight with the capitalist classes* This journal has been compelled to acknowledge that it published something that was untrue, and, in its issue of March 13 last, "withdraws unreservedly the imputation, and expresses regret for the mistake." , Here is how the editor of New Europe makes his withdrawal: "We have received the following communication from our collaborator, Dr. Harold Williams: 'The statement has been frequently made of late in the press and in public speeches that the Bolsheviks have issued a monstrous decree for the nationalisation of women. . . Personally, I cannot be accused of any prepossession in the Bolsheviks' favor, but ... I consider it wrong to weaken the case against them by imputing to them crimes they have never committed.' " Mr. Williams goes on to state that after enquiries from friends recently arrived from Russia, he has been positively assured that "the Government has issued no order of the kind." In the face of this evidence the New Europe prints this honest statement: "We gladly give prominence to the above declaration, since an article entitled ' The Bolsheviks and the Status of Women,' published in No. 107 of the New Europe, appears to have set the ball rolling. In it we gave a translation of a decree issued bv the Bolsheviks of Vladimir and published in the official Soviet organ, Izvestija, which had been supplied to us by an Englishman. . . We now find that he was inaccurate in quoting the document from the official Bolshevik organ, Izvestija, and . ... we desire to withdraw unreservedly the imputation, and to express our regret for the mistake." Are the Australian papers game enough (asks the Tribune) to give the same publicity to the New Europe retractation that they gave to the original statement published by that magazine ?