Newspaper article

misfired

There were some worried faces in the offices of the Pacific Review, the Fiji National Federation Party’s mouthpiece, over an article which set the dominion by the ears. The article advocated armed revolu tionary tactics, no less, and was speedily condemned by the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and repudiated by the National Federation Party.

For a time, the fate of the paper trembled in the balance as the acting Director of Public Prosecutions con sidered the question and the police searched the Pacific Review’s offices.

There would be no prosecution, said the acting Director on October 22, absolving from blame the editor, Ratu Mosese Varesekete, and the publishers who apparently knew nothing about the article until it bad appeared in the newspaper. The blame was laid “on an individual who had left the country” and who was in the editorial chair at the ime in the absence of Ratu Mosese.

This individual turned out to be Australian journalist Don Gunn, the lewspaper s erstwhile assistant Jditor. He was interviewed in Mel )ourne by the police at the request >f the Royal Fiji Police, but Mr. junn refused to make a statement.