BRITAIN'S MOVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23886, 14 August 1939, Page 2

BRITAIN'S MOVE

PROPAGANDA MACHINE CO-ORDINATION OF WORK ACTION LONG OVERDUE The decision of the British Government to set up a " shadow " Ministry of Information—capable of exoansion in wartime to a high power propagandist machine—is generally welcomed, writes the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age; Everybody knows, the importance of good propaganda, and it is notorious that British efforts in this direction have not been very successful up to dale. The now organisation will have a double function. It will form the nucleus of a future fully-equipped department, and, it x will also coordinate the existing propagandist bodies. . These include such organisations as the British Council, the Travel and Industrial Development Associa?, tion of Great Britain and Ireland, and the foreign language section of the British Broadcasting Corporation. There is also, of course, the Press Department of the Foreign Office, which is in close touch with the semi-official bodies. It is typical of the British method that no central Authority has ever been set up to control the different means by which Britain is "projected" abroad. Although given official encouragement and advice and helped by Government subsidies, each organisation has conducted its own form of propaganda without taking much account of what the others were doing. Lack of Co-ordination While the Travel Association encourages the visits of foreign tourists to Britain, the British Council is concerned solely with cultural propaganda. It sends lecturers all over Eurooe. arranges exhibitions of books' and pictures in various capitals, promotes the exchange of university students, and the granting of scholarships to foreigners, and has even organised a dress display in the Balkans. These activities are all right as far as they go, but their total effect is obviously limited, and. the British Council has incurred a good deal of criticism on account of the tameness of its attempts to make Britain liked abroad. This, however, is not the council's fault. Its efforts are restricted both by lack of funds and by the statute which confines them to the cultural field and forbids any political propaganda. The Council has done much to make Britain better known, but its work cannot be said seriously tn have affected the international situation in a manner favourable to British interests. Better results have been obtained by the 8.8. C. Its daily news bulletins in foreign languages are known to have had some effect in Germany and Italy, although increasing difficulties are being met with through "jamming" in those countries The Arab language bulletin has done ? lot to counteract Italian propaganda in Egypt and Palestine. It is claimed that the policy of presenting the facts unadorned has made it

possible to compete successfully; with the powerful Bari. station throughout the, . Arab-speaking ■> world. '•■■■ Geographical Handicaps* But here, again, Britain is handicapped by geographical: factors; Moreover, the. length of the shortwave sent out by Daventry is so close to the Italian that, except on. the most sensitive sets, which impoverished peoples are. unlikely to; possess, it is difficult to obtain one without the other interfering. ..- It is clear that there" is rOorn for improvement in all these directions, and. equally' clear that : improvement can'.'come/only fis: a'result of concerted action. : with. Governmental authority \ and. ample funds behind it. That' is the justification for a Ministry of Information in some form or another. One of the problems, perhaps the most urgent, still to be considered, is that of propaaganda through the press. In this direction, apart from the work of the press department of the Foreign Office, whose function is to explain'British policy to the world, nothing up to date has been attempted at all. In spite of the radio—perhaps because of it—the newspaper is jstiJl/ the most powerful medium for influencing public opinion. Germany and -Italy- have/shown- what"eah s#'; achieved, in their own couhtries>-by a controlled press,, and in other countries by means of bribes, subsidised news- agencies, etc. Nobody suggests that Britain should copy these methods, which in the end; often defeat their own aims; A controlled press would bring no advantage to Britain in peacr time (although, of course, it would automatically appear in war time), and many grave disadvantages. On the other hand, freedom of expression is the best argument of democracy against dictatorship. The British Version What is needed is a better and wider dissemination of the British version of world events throughout the world. This can be achievedonly by making; it easier and more, attractive to foreign newspapers; to have access to British sources. In the smaller countries the newspapers have poor financial resources, they cannot afford an expensive news-gathering organisation, and are, therefore, dependent largely on foreign squrces, and particularly on foreign news agencies. They naturally take the cheapest service, and this is almost invariably the German or Italian, which is supplied to them free or at cut rates. •

The British agencies are in fact, competing with foreign rivals who have behind them the financial backing-of their Governments, and all the facilities .that go with it. It is not surprising that in Central and Eastern Europe, not to mention', the Middle East and South America; in nine cases out of ten the messages printed are those of D.N.B. or Stefani (the German and Italian news agencies), and oniy in the tenth case come from Reuter's or Exchange Telegraph. In addition to the political and general news supplied by the official agencies, there is a flood of material poured out free from Rome and Berlin dealing with economic, cultural, and other subjects. If only a small fraction of this propaganda finds its way into the foreign newspapers, it is still an asset to the policy of the Axis Powers, since there is no British equivalent to offset it. The Rise of Prestige V It is very easy to exaggerate the importance of such methods. The best propaganda is a well-ordered State, an efficient Government, and a sound foreign policy all of which speak for themselves. As a Frenchman said to me, if France could stop her liners catching fire it would be worth all the millions spent on advertising her merits. British prestige has risen steadily since the German occupation of Prague. This is not due to any propaganda, but simply to the policy adopted by the Government, which has impressed the world as right and inevitable.

The immediate problem for the propagandist is to find the right answer to the German and Italian charge of encirclement. The answer, as the British Government fully realises, is not to proffer new gestures of " appeasement," but to continue its efforts to build up such a cast-iron defensive system of alliances as to convince the dictators that aggression can no longer succeed. . When that has been done it should be possible to lay down the terms of a settlement without creating the impression that you are surrendering to fear, and merely whetting the appetite of your opponents. With a. good policy the question of propaganda can be easily solved. It is simply a matter of devising the machinery and providing the'money. Without a good policy it is waste of time.