WORK OF BRITISH COUNCIL

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 2

WORK OF BRITISH COUNCIL

“PROMOTION OF CULTURAL RELATIONS” DESCRIPTION BY MR JOHN ■ BOSTOCK The British Council which was established in 1935 and granted a Royal Charter in 1940 defining its objects as the promotion of closer cultural relations, now works in 60 countries overseas and receives an annual Government grant of £3,000,000. It is not a Government department, any more than a college of surgeons, and is nonpolitical, non-sectarian and non-com-mercial. This information was given last evening by Mr John Bostock, the council’s representative in New Zealand, in an interview. He said his work was to act as a link between cultural bodies in New Zealand and the council in London. Mr Bostock said that what had attracted the attention of New Zealanders to the work of the council were the visits of the Boyd Neel Orchestra, the Ballet Rambert and the Old Vic Company with Sir Laurencd and Lady Olivier. In addition however, it sponsored about 400 scholars from overseas to Britain each year and about 500 visitors, each a specialist in his own sphere. Exhibitions of painting and the exhibition of rural arts and crafts, which was seen by about 110,000 people in New Zealand, were also sponsored by the council. Help had been given the Christchurch Civic Music Council to obtain music, and gramophone records and sheet music of . British composers had been tributed to the four university colleges. He added that the council might be of assistance during Canterbury’s centennial celebrations. Asked whether the council was contemplating sponsoring any more orchestras, operatic and dramatic companies and ballets to New Zealand, Mr Bostock said that there were many irons in the fire. He hoped that it would be possible to continue the work, but what could be done depended on financial considerations. If th’ey were reasonably satisfactory commercial propositions, they would be continued.

Popularity of British Ballet “British ballet has come into its own during the last 20 years and is now. known and appreciated -throughout Europe,” said Mr Bostock. “The ballet has no linguistic bars and for that reason the council has sent companies from Britain to most of the countries of Europe. Interest in music and drama has also increased enormously in Britain since the war.” The Ballet Rambert had been enthusiastically received wherever it had danced in New Zealand, he added. Mr Bostock said that the Arts Council of Britain was doing in the United Kingdom, what the British Council was doing overseas. “At the end of the war it was found that the Council for the Encouragement of Music and Art (CEMA) had not only maintained cultural activities, which had been neglected' temporarily, but by making drama, music and other forms of art available in air raid shelters, factory canteens and similar places, had started something quite new. CEMA was therefore reformed at the end of the war as the Arts Council,” he said. It had a Royal Charter and a Government grant. Its first president was the noted British economist, Lord Keynes, who died in 1946.