WORLD RADIO.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 235, 5 October 1927, Page 7

WORLD RADIO.

CONTROL OF ETHER. Realm Of A Beneficent Public Service. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—-Copyright.)

(Received 10 a.m.) ! WASHINGTON, October 4. The International Radio and Telegraph Conference was opened by Mr. Calvin Coolidge, Avho urged the delegates of 50 countries present to discuss the problems candidly and to

be generous in co-operation and conciliation. He declared that the United States was ready to aid in the solving of the problems of the conference which was expected to devote over a month in bringing the 1912 conference up-to-date. Mr. Coolidge said: "In many fields America claims the right to be the j master of her own development. "It cordially concedes the same right to all others, but in the radio field tbe most complete development, both at home and abroad, lies in mutual concession and co-operation. "Your main object is to raise this great industry into the realm of a beneficent public service." Mr. Coolidge pointed out the great part that radio plays in military defence, navigation, commerce, education, musical and theatrical entertainment, and remarked that the undeveloped portions of the globe suffered from the lack of communications which radio offers and the means to reach and develop them. Mr. Coolidge added that to use radio does not require an elementary education. Its main weakness appeared to

lie in the fact that it did not produce a permanent record for future consideration. Mr. Coolidge declared that radio, having become great in world influence, needs to be raised "Into the realm of a beneficieut public service in order to promote friendship and understanding, rather than ill-will and dissension among nations." He urged a broad co-operative policy for the good of all nations using radio as a means of communication, as it holds a great promise to bring enlightenment "to the dark places of the earth." * He declared that the industry required national and international control. Mr. Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, told the convention that the air must be policed and said: "We are most seriously threatened with the chaos of un-coordinated traffic. The regulation of this traffic upon the channels of ether is as essential as the regulation of traffic upon our crowded streets, but equally, in both cases, the purpose must be to expedite the movement and stimulate progress, not to retard it. "If we are successful," he added, "we [ shall have contributed to the march of ; international commerce." i Mr. Hoover was elected president of the conference. Mr. G. J. Hofker, Inspector-General of the Poet and Telegraph of the Netheri lands, proposed the nomination, which was accepted by acclamation.