“CALLING NEW ZEALAND”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 9 October 1942, Page 4

“CALLING NEW ZEALAND”

W R.U.L. WANTS QUESTIONS Station W.R.U.L. (Boston. U.S.A.), the only big non-commercial station in the United States, broadcasts 24 hours a day carrying news and encouragement through the Nazi barriers. On seven beams that reach every continent, and in a dozen languages, it broadcasts information the

i dictators would suppress. And W.R.U.L. I is heard and believed, by the conquerf ed peoples of Europe. From every - country, at the rate of 100 letters a day. - comes news that the broadcasts have t been listened to: from Norway and from France letters are smuggled out > almost daily, telling of the new hope that has been given through listening s to its bulletins, says the "British-Ame-l rican Co-operator.” Whatever affects W. R.U.L., said • the "New York Herald-Tribune" recently, is of vital interest, for to i those unfortunate victims of war it • is one of the rays of hope, and sources ; of encouragement and moral endur- : ance. . . It has been doing a characteristically American type of pioneeringpioneering this time in ways of spreading encouragement and hope. To speak of it as "propaganda” would be misleading, because of the fact

that the word now connotes sinister efforts to misinform. What W.R.U.L. has been seeking to do is to spread the truth. That the truth is something which the Totalitarian despots cannot bear may be inferred from the virulence of the attacks which German* and Italians have made against these short-wave broadcasts. Reports received from all parts of Europe indicate that during the last eighteen months the stations have been listened to with extraordinary eagerness, as if the people were hungry for truth, sanity and hope, W.R.U.L. is run without profit, and on donations received from American well-wishers by the World W r ide Broadcasting Foundation which was formed for the purpose of cultivating the spirit of international understanding. It is now extending its operations, anti is contemplating a series of broadcasts about America

"Answering You” which would bo given over the B BC. shortwave. To accomplish this object it is necessary that W.R.U.L. would have the goodwill of some New Zealanders who would be willing to ask questions about America These questions need not be limited to serious matters.—indeed there is no restriction on the content of reasonable question—though obviously not all will be suitable for a broadcast answer in time of war. Probably there are many who listen on short-wave who would both like to ask some questions for this series ami who would later like to hear the broadeasts. Any who arc interested should write direct to Sir Angus Fletcher World Wide Broadcasting Foundation filto Fifth Avenue. New Yort