WHAT INDIA IS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1932, Page 5

WHAT INDIA IS

SHOWING THE WORLD.

NEW BRITISH MOVE. Annoyed at the anti-British bias in American news reels of India, a group of independents in England is sending a first-rate modern crew there forthwith to show the world what the Indians are, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Most of the news reels shown in London are American, and the Conservative right wing feels that, intentionally or otherwise, these have presented an unbalanced view of true conditions in the country. The expedition has the support of such Conservative leaders as Mr. Stanley Baldwin and Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India. Particularly are the Conservatives alarmed at the prominence given in sound news to Mahatma Gandhi. The expedition is being sent by ; a new company called British Films, Ltd., an independent organisation formed with backing from among members of the Conservative Party. The GaumontBritish Film Company also sent a complete camera outfit to India by the same boat on which Gandhi travelled. The corps of photographers sent out by the new company will have the fullest co-operation of the Indian Government. Their business is to get new films showing what the British have been able to do during their 150 years’ rule in India, and also how the Indians fail to come up to the standard maintained bv the civilised nations of the West. Ono of the chief reasons for the Conservative decision was the undoubted force of the screen for political propaganda during the last general election in°Great Britain. Cars with reels of speeches by Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Baldwin and others toured remote parts of the country, in some cases where the auditors had never before seen a talking film. The shows were swamped. So impressed have the Conservatives been that they have decided to use the cars in the present “Buy British” campaign and later to incorporate their own picture story of India in the tours. There are many things in India to which attention can be drawn with pride. India can show some of the finest achievements of the British, as Indians themselves admit. Huge irrigation works that have brought, millions of arid acres under cultivation and increased the productivity of the soil, the 50,000 miles of new railroads,. and large schools started by the. British are excellent propaganda material, bide by side with these scenes the Indian can be shown persisting in his wretched life of ignorance and lack of sanitation, still plying his hand plough and lifting water by primitive methods. The ever-ready source of poverty and squalor is being gradually dealt with under British management of Indian affairs. Part of the film or films will deal with the strenuous life of the British official as he strives to improve the lot of his charges. The pictures will comprise wonderful propaganda not o/y for the British people but also for Americans, since the pictures will be shown in the United States. The Conservative Party has no ostensible connection with the uew company in charge of the work; but nevertheless, Tory headquarters have been so impressed with the scheme that around £50,000 has been advanced to defray the expedition's costa.