The controversy over whether Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's mail brings two ideas into conflict. One is that no one is above the law, and public officials should expect (and may be obliged) to be treated the same as anyone else. This harks back to a Calvinist notion that: "I am no better than anyone else and no one else is better than me."

The opposing idea is that Premiers and national leaders will by necessity be privy to information that is by definition confidential, and there is a risk that it could fall into the wrong hands. The other justification for opening mail is that criminals have and will use the names of prominent people to smuggle in illicit items (on the basis that the mail will not be searched) and preventing Customs officials from searching the mail would open that door up.

On balance, this newspaper leans towards the idea that no one is above the law and where Customs officials have reasonable grounds to conduct searches they should do so, within the safeguards laid down by the law. As a courtesy, it would seem to be sensible that a supervisor should be notified and that the Premier is told that certain items have been searched on certain days. With regard to confidential information and the like, searches of mail will inevitably raise that risk in all sorts of areas, from companies' financial information to divorce papers to other personal affairs. One would hope that the Customs officers are trained to respect those facts and to treat them confidentially. In the event that trust was abused, dismissal and/or prosecution would surely be the inevitable result.