THE COMMONWEALTH APATHY TO BE COUNTERED BY ACTION AT PEOPLE’S LEVEL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31335, 4 April 1967, Page 16

THE COMMONWEALTH APATHY TO BE COUNTERED BY ACTION AT PEOPLE’S LEVEL

TUI THOMAS.

(By TUI THOMAS, women’s editor of ’’The Press”, who studied the Commonwealth while abroad last year on a New Zealand Churchill Fellowship) Apathy, rather than the probability of Britain’s entry into the Common Market, is the greatest threat to the Commonwealth today. If the. association is to develop and thrive as a world force for better international relations, the peoples within it must be awakened to its capability.

The Commonwealth is in dire need of a high-powered promotional project within each of its 26 member states to confute ill-informed but growing criticism. Such a complex publicity campaign cannot be left however, to Governments, their agencies nor to the Commonwealth Secretariat

The prod must come from the people themselves, led by well-informed groups who understand what the Conmonwealth stands for, men and women who are prepared to get behind it and push. Their task will be to thrust beyond political and economic relations, which are the business of Government to strengthen cultural links and liven up curiosity about other branches of the human family. There is plenty of scope. The Commonwealth covers about a quarter of mankind and includes every gradation of skin colour. Commonwealth promoters will need to use the full force of modern mass media communications to get their message across. Television documentaries from countries within the association, newspaper and radio features—anv means that sparks off intelligent discussion— must be considered for their impact. Fund Of Goodwill There is a fund of goodwill for the Commonwealth wait ing to be tapped more liberally by study tours and interexchanges of men and women able to pass on what they learn. A wider dissemination of regular Commonwealth publications is needed at the very time when these have been reduced in Britain. A Commonwealth correspondent of "The Times” wrote last year that the Commonwealth posed two supreme problems. "The first is how to underpin, or substitute, with personal bonds and a sense of cultural citizenship, the disintegrating political and official structure of the Commonwealth association. “The Commonwealth now means share* experience by its citizens, or nothing. Its prime need is to create and develop means of communication in thought and emotion. "The second, and allied, problem is to improve what for a better word we call race relations," he said. The job, it seems, has been left to voluntary organisations working with varying degrees of impact throughout the Commonwealth. The Royal Commonwealth Society, the oldest and probably the most forward-looking of the big “V O's” recently sponsored a new group, named “Nudge,” in London. Its aim is to put forward practical ideas to develop the Commonwealth, to counteract criticism of the Common-

wealth in Britain and to fight apathy towards it. A committee of six then of wide-ranging experience will run it. They include Dr. David Pitt, chairman of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination: Mr Guy Barnett, a member of the Voluntary Service Overseas staff and a former Labour M.P. for South Dorset; Mr Charles Longbottom, a company director and former Tory M.P. for York; Mr David Whatley, a young banker and instigator of the name, “Nudge”; Mr S. C. Leslie, a consultant and a former head of the British Treasury Information Division; and Mr Derek Ingram, a London journalist, author of several books on the Commonwealth and founder of Gemini News Service, an agency which feeds out feature articles on the Commonwealth to newspapers throughout the world. Some bright ideas can be expected from these men. The first major subject to be tackled by “Nudge” is, ironically, the cutback in Britain of Commonwealth publications, which have been a necessary service in informing the Commonwealth countries about each other. The “Nudge” committee believes the time has come when the Commonwealth must publicise itself. Its reasoning is sound. Special Department The obvious answer is to set up a special department at the Commonwealth Secretariat to handle publications by Commonwealth countries. A full-scale information department is not suggested at this stage, though this might follow, but a section which publishes year books, fact sheets and publications such as “Commonwealth Today,” or something similar, for distribution. The committee envisages a mixed-manned department, set up on similar lines to the Secretariat itself. Its head would be responsible to the Secretary-General, and thus to 26 Governments. The department need not be highly expensive. If well run it might even make a modest profit. Commonwealth Governments would need to contribute collectively to get the project off the ground. When divided among all the governments, these might be quite small. An alternative arrangement suggested by the committee is a special publications department of the Commonwealth Institute. The Institute is not a British organisation. Its governors are the High Commissioners in London and its next director is likely to a non-British subject. Its displays are approved and paid for by the Commonwealth Governments, There is no reason why the same system should not work for a publication division.

“Nudge” is rightly concerned about the “desperate gap” which must be filled if the Commonwealth is to develop and to be understood by its peoples. “The Commonwealth has suffered too much in the last few years from bad publicity and the lack of constructive material,” the committee’s first report says. The Royal Commonwealth Society would, no doubt, support “Nudge” in helping to feed out such intra-Common-wealth publications. The society already has its own excellent bi-monthly magazine “Commonwealth Journal,” which is available to more than 30,000 members throughout the Commonwealth. At The Forefront As it approaches its centennial year (1968) the society is at the forefront of Commonwealth thinking. A non-political body, it accepts political disagreements within the Commonwealth and concentrates on strengthening links that will last. Experts on Commonwealth affairs and visiting Prime Ministers are invited to give weekly lunch-hour talks at the society’s headquarters in Northumberland avenue, London. Summer schools and seminars are held. Nearly 120 Commonwealth people attend ed last year’s school at Mag dalen College, Oxford, to take part in lectures and discus sion on regional challenges t< the Commonwealth concept. A corporate membershii scheme for business organisa tions with Commonwealth in terests was started last year More than 200 of the prin cipal bank and trading or ganisations are representec on it. The society provides the table for them to sit around to iron out difficulties with representatives of Commonwealth Governments and trade unions. The society has no axe to grind. It does not pressurise for any firm or interfere commercially, but it brings businessmen and economists together. Young Leaders Recognising the need for keeping the Commonwealth before leaders of the future, the society has embarked on a scheme of interchange visits for young executives. The first, “Operation Maple Leaf,” went to Canada in 1965. The second, "Operation Kangaroo,” is now in action in Australia. By encouraging a constant examination of current political, economic and financial situations in Commonwealth countries, the society is stimulating a sympathetic understanding of the characteristics of the association and its membership. Now it is up to world-wide branches to back up headquarters in an all-out promotion of the Commonwealth within their own communities.