LITTLE PUBLICITY FOR BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 16

LITTLE PUBLICITY FOR BRITAIN

COMPARISON WHJH OTHER COUNTRIES SMALL AMOUNT SPENT ON PROPAGANDA (FHOM OUE OWN COHBESPOKDfcKT.) LONDOrf, February 10. - Recently published figures show how lamentably inadequate is Great Britain's provision for national publicity compared with that of other countries. Against the £1,000,000 or more annually set aside by other nations for "propaganda and prestige," Britain makes a yearly grant of £60,000, which may be increased* shortly to £IOO,OOO, to the .British Council for Cultural Relations. This council was set up only in 1934, but in the few years of its existence, has done much to increase the appreciation of English life, literature and music throughout the world. So much for the cultural and political side. On the economic or commercial side British efforts compare even less favourably. Merely to attract visitors an Italian organisation spends £200,000 a year, and is, of course, financed by the State. Switzerland spends more than £200,000, of which half is Government money. Even Canada spends £30,000 a year to attract tourist business. Ten years ago there was no organisation of this kind in England trying to give a good impression. For the last eight years there has been a Government grant to the Travel and Industrial Development Association, recently raised to £SOOO. This is supplemented by contributions from railways, hotels, shipping lines and local, authorities, but even last year the total' amount available to present Britain to the world was only £40,000. Even commercially, there is a good deal at stake. Every visitor to Britain increases the invisible export trade by spending money here, and this sum has recently been estimated at £33,000,000 a year.