page 4

Boshier Reviews The Brig.

For Beep Read Banks ...

One Wet Friday last winter I saw an old, cantankerous man in Aro Street trying to crank his 1934 Chev. into life. Both he and the Chev. were part of an earlier era, and, in their time, were probably a reasonable combination, but on this wet day in 1968 were an unhappy combination of marriage and inefficiency.

The Chev. had lost two doors, had a flat lyre, had only half a bonnet, the roof was ripped, and it had holes round the running boards which exposed its inner workings. The man, shuffling first to the left, then to the right, and every now and then cranking furiously, was bad tempered and ignorant. He knew precious little about cars and seemed quite out of sons with reality. The Chev. actually spluttered into life on one occasion but when it stopped the man kicked the mudguard and swore. He was a sad fellow and I would have quite liked to have helped him, since I know a bit about old Chev's, but he aroused in me an innate distrust, so for good or bad I left him to his problem.

The interview with Brigadier Gilbert reminded me of this. The Security Service hangs over from an earlier 'cold-war' era, is grossly mismanaged, spends $272,000 a year (1968 estimates) and to my mind is so clapped-out and rotten it should be filled with foam and floated away to anywhere. Its continued existence frightens me.

However, back to the interview. At the Labour Party Conference Brian Edwards asked if I would agree to a 'Gallery' confrontation with Gilbert. It seemed an awesome responsibility, to speak for so many concerned with civil liberties, but as Edwards had in mind a long discussion and Labour was now committed to a re-organisation of the service, I agreed. Gilbert at first refused, but after the police came seeking information about the agent who had handed over the list and reported back what I had said, namely that I didn't know who leaked the list from Security, he changed his altitude. 'Gilbert is now nibbling." said 'Gallery' producer Des Monaghan on Wednesday. I put my files in order, arranged for the list of agents to be available and awaited instructions from Monaghan.

However, during Wednesday night Gilbert lost the nibbling urge. By mid-morning Thursday, in spite of Gilbert's reluctance to answer enquiries, the final position was clean to bring the Gilbert Boshier 'Gallery' confrontation to fruition was going to be like gift wrapping a dozen live eels. Gilbert refused and that was that.

The fact that the P.M. found some legislation that had been in his drawer for three months (nothing to do with the present argument, of course) and decided to tell this to the press pulled the carpet from under Gilbert's feet. Implicit in the P.M.'s announcement was the admission that the Security Service, as it is presently constituted, is a failure.

On Friday I was ready to listen carefully to any points Gilbert could raise in defence of the Service. However, the interview confirmed my worst fears. Gilbert is inarticulate, and completely lacking in the kind of political and ideological sophistication one would expect to find in the Director of a nation's Security Service. My main criticisms at the Labour Party Conference, namely that Gilbert and his colleagues are an anathema and incompetent, were confirmed. When the filming was completed Gilbert was very, very angry.

Television is a revealing medium. The abbreviated transcripts of the interview that appeared in daily papers hide the emotional and physical responses of Gilbert to Brian Edwards' questions.

Gilbert was uneasy and nervous, reasonable when one considers that he will be out of a job if Labour gets elected, but the uncontrolled gulp that the camera caught when Edwards produced the list of agents (yes, it was a real list, rushed by NZBC-sponsored taxi to the studio just before the interview was to be filmed) was more revealing than all the spoken words. Similarly, at the end of the programme when Gilbert spluttered out his "rely on the integrity and intelligence of the staff" reply to the question "who protects me against you?" I felt he had almost had enough. I was glad for his sake that the interview ended at this point, but was sorry that so little time was available. The following questions, among others, should have been asked.

1.	Why, if you are interested only in communists and rightists, are files held on non-communists and Labour Party members?
2.	How can we rely on your integrity and intelligence when you are on record as having wrongly identified people as communists?
3.	It has been shown that security information is available to National Party officers. It this the 'old boy' network or is this integrity?
4.	A security operative was found going through papers in the office of the former Minister of Forests, Sir Eruera Tirikatene. Do you deny being interested in the Labour Party?
5.	You have shown in several cases, notably in the case of Frank Haigh, that you are capable of filing damaging and incorrect information which can later be used against a person. Bearing in mind the errors that have been exposed publicly, what percentage of the 18,000 files that you completed last year contain inaccurate information? How does a person know if information on his file is correct?
7.	Is it not a fact chat there is in New Zealand a very discontented former employee of yours who tried to seek recompense for work he had performed for you?
8.	Wasn't it part of one Wellington agent's work to spy on left wing members of staff at Rongotai College?
9.	Is it—not a fact that the agent employed at Rongotai College cultivated the friendship of, and actually lived with, a respected and loyal person who is now a member of the academic staff of this university so that he could spy on him?
10.	If you have "practically no interest in universities" (quite frankly, I don't believe you), why did one of your agents some years ago get himself elected secretary of me V.U.W. Socialist Club and take off with all the records, including the membership list?

The happenings at the NZBC after the interview are as interesting as the interview itself. After the film was made, Gilbert insisted that Banks' name be excised. The NZBC were happy that the interview be screened exactly as it was filmed. Gilbert was not happy, either with his performance or with the inclusion of Banks' name. The instruction to excise Banks' name came from the Security Service.

After the film was screened, the NZBC received abusive calls. Some thought Brian Edwards a communist agent (some think I am too. I received a letter on Friday addressed to R. Boshier. Communist agent, enclosing my photograph, cut from an Auckland paper, inscribed 'Wanted Dead') but in general the whole exercise was a television triumph.