A “REAL GENEVA"

Evening Star, Issue 22596, 13 March 1937, Page 4

A “REAL GENEVA"

POWER OF BROADCASTING “ Unless nations are prepared to be humble instead of proud, I don’t think there is much hope for the peace of the world,” said Professor J. Shelley, director or National Broadcasting Services, in an address to the Rotary conference in Wellington recently. “ Let broadcasting be a real Geneva, and not merely Geneva,” he declared. “ Broadcasting is an instrument that can be used for tremendous good or tremendous evil. It is just an instrument. We have got to see that the right attitude of mind and heart is behind that institution. At any rate, I regard that as my particular job in New Zealand.” The human voice added a little to the written word in the way of getting near to the people who are speaking, said Professor • Shelley. One thought of them not merely as exponents of vague or abstract ideas; one thought of them as human beings, with the weaknesses, of ordinary human beings. There was a great danger from the printed word of individual human beings in different countries assuming superhuman proportions. One thought of them as being remote and majestic. But if one could only learn to think of them as ordinary human beings with ordinary domestic problems, then ho was sure that the big problems of the world would be very much more easily solved. That was what Rotary stood for. The width of human personal contacts could bo very great, but, after all, the voice meant something. The "breaking down of that barrier of superiority was the first step in the resumption of proper international relations. Rapidity of conveyance of ideas was obviously "another important intsrument in the possible cohesion of the world. They had instruments given to them by the engineers and scientists, and they had to learn how to use them. “ There are,” continued Professor Shelley, “at the present time one or two clap-trap words which I think we as rotarians Ought to analyse, ought to think of very carefully. The two words which to my mind fconstituto the claptrap of the world at the present time .ar.e in Geneva. ‘ Realism ’ —realism, as far as I can see, as far as I have been able to understand, the people who use it, is merely a rather nicely-dressed up form of the word ‘ funk.’ . “ People who are incapable of facing ideals and incapable of fighting for 1 them instantly say we must face realities. I don’t say there is no need to face realities; but the true idealist is the person who faces realities and makes such that it does not mean merely optimism. i ‘‘The .othe* clap-trap word used in the world at the present time is ‘ defence.’ We are out for international peace; that is one 'of the principals of rotary. Every country in the world is putting down hundreds of millions of pounds in order to defend itself against ' the other chap. What is defence to one country is offence to every other country. lam not saying that such defence and such armaments are not necessary ; that is not my business. I am saying that if it is left merely there, there is no hope for the peace of the world. We have to have something more than this negative attitude. “ Think of the nations now just sitting behind their borders and showing their teeth in the way of armament programmes, and just' merely growling at one another in order to keep the other fellow off. Surely there is no hope for peace along those lines. We have got to do something else. Growths of nations come from contacts, not from separation. It is only by getting together that we can understand the other person’s point of view and understand ourselves. “ To grow and to growl are seemingly very similar if you write them together, but. believe me, there is an ‘1 ’ of a difference. There seems to be a slogan of ‘ less talk and more armaments ’; our slogan ought to be ‘ less talk and more think.’ ” Professor Shelley said that broadcasting was the most powerful instrument in the moulding of world ideas. Were ive going to use it merely as another form of armament, as a method of attack in the war sense? Or were we going to develop it and give it a tradition, and regard it in very much the same way as we regard our universities and churches ? Broadcasting made it possible for everybody to listen to everybody. We had to develop a tradition of tolerance; only on the basis of tolerance could peace ever be established. It seemed to him that broadcasting should be used as the positive instrument for world peace, just as armaments were being used as the negative instrument. Armaments were being used, as he had said, for nations to growl at one another; broadcasting could be used in order to get over to other nations the problems that were facing the people who were speaking. If the ordinary people could understand that those other chaps were ordinary human beings like themselves, and had their own problems, they would say, “ Well, they think that is the best way; what can we do to help them solve their problems?” . Instead of waiting until we had hit the other chap on the head before we said, “ I am raf brother’s keeper,” let us say, “ I am my brother’s keeper ” first, and then there would be .no need to hit him on the head. “ It is that bridge over to the person of the other country that is necessary,” added Professor Shelley. “ That, I think, can be helped by bre ’.dcasting. It is the difficulty of trying to see other people as we see ourselves, and not seeing ourselves as other people see us. The defence of armaments, to my mind, is only half the problem,' The other defence is the positive defence of attack. Every tactician'knows that the best method of defence is attack; Unfortunately that defence may be in the terms of armaments, but I hope that attack will be on the minds and hearts of the people through the minds and the hearts of the people of other nations through broadcasting.” ; The development of tradition in radio broadcasting was a matter of years, and it was something that nobody saw; it went ou peacefully and patiently.