Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1937. UNFAIR PROPAGANDA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 195, 19 July 1937, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1937. UNFAIR PROPAGANDA.

Because of certain incidents in the past few years the British Government deemed it necessary to ask the Italian Government to give an undertaking that unfriendly comment would not be broadcast from one of its radio stations when the report on Palestine was issued. Signor Mussolini gave such an undertaking, Hie necessity for which will be obvious to all who have studied the Palestine problem, and happily it was faithfully observed. The matter raises a big question as to what part the propaganda of nations sent over the air is to play as against diplomatic reasoning and recognised international courtes3 r . Italy at present, according to the Rome correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, is completing one of the most powerful radio stations in the world. What its chief purpose will be is in the realms of conjecture; its power will enable it to reach out all over the universe. Should it be devoted, as are the great British stations, for mere diversion—a strong point in the policy of the British Broadcastjng Corporation—all should be well; Italy has much to share with the world in the arts and culture generally. But there is a growing menace in the use of radio by some Powers, notably Italy, Germany, and Russia, for the distortion of international developments so that thev become propaganda of the most insidious kind. Instances of this have been found in the Italian campaign in Abyssinia, and her reflections on Britain’s policy in respect to Egypt; Germany has utilised the radio broadcast to express views involving aspersions, veiled though they may be, on Britain’s relations with other Powers; Russia has been strongly accused of interference in international affairs outside her legitimate sphere by giving a complexion to certain events to uneducated or only partly educated masses which can only be termed harmful to the nation responsible for the maintenance of order in the countries to which the broadcasts have been specifically directed. Thus is a scientific discovery with potentialities for good even yet untouched being used as a weapon instead of a benefit to mankind. With the growth of the motion film industry it was found necessary to invoke a censorship in some countries with illiterate peoples lest subjects which would be interpreted in their true meaning only by educated persons should convey a false and demoralising impression. Nearly every country with control over illiterate masses has had to adopt such restrictions. The same censorship over radio is becoming just as necessary, but

how to apply it is another question, and one of great ina»rnitude. In connection with this new development in propaganda, there is brought to mind a speech given by that famous statesman, Mr Joseph Chamberlain, father of the present Prime Minister of Britain, a short time after the megaphone was invented. In it he said: ‘Lkmong the numerous discoveries which we owe to science, I was much interested some time ago in reading of one which I think was called the megaphone. Its province was to expand and develop the sounds which were entrusted to it. By its means a whisper becomes a roar. And some-people are deceived ; they think it the thunderous voice of the people to which they arte listening. But if they would only trace it to its source they would find it was the whisper of some few privileged individuals swollen and expanded by the ingenious megaphones which 1 have described.” The dissemination of propaganda on a scale such as that of which a warning has already been given is a matter greatly to be deplored in the interests of international goodwill, particularly when one nation deliberately distorts socalled news with the motive of undermining good relations between other Powers and their dependencies. How serious the development has become may be gauged from the novel but important request made by Britain to Italy.