WAR IN THE AIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27504, 26 September 1950, Page 4

WAR IN THE AIR

The United States is a nation accustomed to expenditure on a large scale, but the 17,000,000,000 dollars which have been appropriated for defence at home and abroad represent big spending even for that country. The increases which have been announced in income l tax—l2 to 20 per cent, in personal income tax, and 38 to 45 per cent, in company tax—are an indication that the strain is being felt. The Emergency Defence Appropriations Bill, which has just been passed through Congress, is a* comprehensive measure comprising grants needed for the war in Korea and for various other purposes, among which two are of interest as they refer to potent weapons of the future. For research on atomic weapons, including the hydrogen bomb, 260,000,000 dollars have been granted, and 79,000,000 dollars -for “increasing ‘ The Voice of America.’ ” The latter item seems small in comparison with the astronomical proportions of the total appropriation, but it marks a very important development in American policy. This is the intention to create an international shortwave broadcasting network which will be comparable with those now possessed by Great Britain and Soviet Russia. The results of this may be incalculable. The experience of the success of British radio propaganda among the underground movements of the occupied countries in the last war suggests that the lesson has been very belatedly learned. The journal issued by “ The Voice of America ” claims that through its array of transmitters and relay stations its programmes are carried in 23 languages everywhere in the world, but a diagrammatic map showing the areas covered reveals that most attention is given to American zones of influence—for example, Latin America —and that the coverage in Eastern Europe and Asia could be greatly extended. In an article published recently in the Economist it was stated that, while Great Britain’s shortwave broadcasts total 666 hours 'per week, and the Russians have in the past four years increased their total from 246 to 502 hours, the American stations were broadcasting only 165 hours last December. There was, however, a prompt increase in the Pacific programmes following the outbreak of the Korean war. The natural difficulties of reaching listeners in the Communist countries have in recent years been intensified by the “jamming” activities of 200 powerful Soviet transmitters whose only purpose is to prevent the reception of foreign programmes. The effects of this have been partly overcome and the BBC claims that a Russian listener is now offered a special programme at every hour of the twenty-four. The extent of the proposed American development can be assessed from the fact that the budget for “ The Voice of America ” has been about 10,000,000 dollars per annum, although an additional 10,000,000 dollars were granted about a year ago to counteract'‘jamming-”