PUBLICITY BY BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28153, 17 December 1956, Page 15

PUBLICITY BY BRITAIN

Complaint Of Small

Expenditure

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, December 15. Britain spent only £l2m. a year on its official overseas information services compared with very much larger sums being spent by Russia and the United States, a Labour member, Mr Anthony Greenwood, complained in the house of Commons yesterday. He was speaking on a private members’ motion urging the Government to improve these services. The motion was later approved without voting. A Labour member, Mr Emrys Hughes, said during the debate that something should be done in Britain to prevent the growth of anti-Ameri-can feeling. “The Americans know far more about this country than this country knows about itself,” said Mr Hughes. Sir Charles Taylor, a Conservative member, who recently visited the United States, said that he found a lamentable ignorance of Britain. "We must remember that there have been no tourists going from this country to the United States since 1939,” he said. Mr Greenwood said that it was “sheer lunacy” for the Government to spend £ 1500 m. on defence and only £l2m. on official information. The Financial Secretary of the Treasury (Mr Henry Brooke) said that there was no direction in which money could more easily be wasted than on information.

The Commons should not rush into unlimited spending simply because of a keener appreciation of the information services caused by the Suez crisis. The information staffs needed above all stability, not suddenly to be asked to take on what he termed “an illconsidered major expansion.”