WORK OF U.N.

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25538, 5 July 1948, Page 3

WORK OF U.N.

TOO LITTLE KNOWN IN EUROPE

* appalling shortage OF NEWSPRINT ” The gravest thing for all European countries was an appalling shortage of newsprint, for it was impossible, even through information centres, to advise people of the activities of the United Nations, said Mr Vernon Bartlett, member of the House of Commons for Somerset, in a national broadcast last evening. Mr Bartlett, a journalist by profession, said that the newspaper for which he worked never had more than four pages in which to squeeze all the news of the world. That meant that information about the United Nations was not published. In the lew weeks he had been m the United States he had noticed a difference between the British and American people about the Palestine problem. It was true that the people in Britain had not the faintest idea, or were just beginning to get the faintest idea, of the reaction of many people in America about British policy in Palestine. The work of the Security Council would have been made infinitely easier if the shortage of newsprint, in Britain could have been overcome. The committee, of which he was a member, had made various recommendations, mainly technical recommendations, to improve the machinery of conveying knowledge about United Nations from headquarters at Lake Success to people in other parts of the world. One of the major difficulties, apart from the shortage of dollars, was that insufficient radio commentators and journalists were available at headquarters. If such men were readily available, they could see the work being done at Lake Success and could become a type of perambulating propagandist. The world would then be advised of what efforts United Nations was making in different spheres and would be more appreciative of what was being done to ensure a lasting peace.