RADIO PROPAGANDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1939, Page 6

RADIO PROPAGANDA

CHIEF WEAPON IN WAR IDEOLOGIES CONTROL OF WAVE LENGTHS. WORLD AGREEMENT NEEDED. Radio propaganda continues to be one of the chief weapons in the war of ideologies throughout the world, states Sisley Huddlestone in the “Christian Science Monitor.” The hysteria evoked by Orson Welles' radiocast of a dram? atised Martian invasion ■ underscored the great influence of radio upon the thoughts of men. The following article is a study of this great, comparatively' new force. _ . ■ There is a little magic box in nearly every home .with knobs that may . determine the issue of war and peace. Limit the tonnage of warships, restrict the size of cannon, eliminate the submarine and the bomber ~ . . ..these are doubtless excellent proposals; but potentially more dangerous than big battleships, big guns, and the rest, is that little instrument of national and international . propaganda—the radio. If its international uses have not yet become a peril, they are at least a problem. Some years ago the Polish delegate to the League of Nations introduced a project of “spiritual disarmament.” Among other things, the radio, as a means of appealing to public opinion in foreign countries, over the heads of the governments, should, he urged, be renounced. There should be a strict regulation of broadcasting embodied in a universal pact.'

Whether such pledges would be ob : served in wartime is doubtful, but certainly something should b.e done to prevent .the mischievous employment of “wireless” in peacetime. If there is, as now talked of, to be a new Peace Conference, here is a subject which must not be overlooked. It has a capital importance. This is appreciated by such countries as Russia, where it is a criminal offence to listen in to “enemy” stations, and by Germany, which is studying the possibilities of receiv 7 ing sets adapted to German stations only. THE MAGIC BOX. At home in the evehing I turn the knobs of my magic box, and hear Moscow speaking in French, English, German. These radiocasts are designed to forward a particular conception of world policy. At the height of the Anglo-Italian differences, the powerful Italian radiocasting station at Bari sent oUt messages in Arabic which caused considerable embarrassment to the British, who eventually felt Obliged to Use similar tactics. Before the two Powers came to. an, agreement we had had an. object lesson in the potentialities of the new. international implement. During the Spanish fighting there has been a daily crop of sensational assertions transmitted from various stations. The Sudeten Germans, backed up .by Germany, made their demands bn the central authorities in Czechoslovakia, to the accompaniment of a din of radio propaganda. The conflict in . the air had not. ostensibly such crushing results as a war of, bombing machines, but it was effective; When Herr Adplf Hitler decided to intervene at Nuremberg, men and .women in .every c.ouqtrj in the world listened. They listened with equal attention to Mr Neville Chamberlain and M. Edouard Daladier. It may long be debated whether Munich was one of the decisive though bloodless battles of history; it cannot be disputed that, for.the first.time in a matter of vital international politics, there was used, on a gigantic scale, the new instrument of the wireless. POLITICAL TACTICS. In internal affairs, there has been an extraordinary transformation of political tactics.. President Roosevelt was one of the first leaders to make -frequent use of the larger audience which the radio offered. His . fireside talks vastly increased his authority. Instead of speaking to a few thousand people, he could address, from the privacy of his study, many millions. The ,old Greek democracy of the forum was revived and magnified beyond imagination. Nothing, I think, was so moving as the great British Empire radiocasts at Christmas-time, when Canada. Australia, South Africa, and the remotest stations in the far-flung Dominions, listened in and responded to the Mother Country. In particular, the King’s address to his multitudinous “family,” echoing round the globe, had a remarkable effect; its consolidating value, to the Empire was tremendous. But, of course, the dictators are especially aware of the possibilities of the radio. If they assemble tens o? thousands of people in tthe. marketplace, these are not enough; from city io city, from post to post, from home to home, the spokesmen’s voices vibrate. There is a nation-wide contact of leaders and led. Here is a new method of Government, ft cannot but have an influence, which it is as yet difficult to foresee, on the future of Parliament, I in democratic as well as dictatorial countries. PARLIAMENT ENDANGERED. Indeed, although there has been no nominal change in France, it has been apparent for some years to the careful observer that Parliament is in danger of being superseded by the radio. In moments of crisis the Prime Minister demands “full powers,” sends Parliament into vacation, and tells the people by radio precisely what he is doing and why he is doing it. There is. obviously, much that is good in these facilities of communication. It may be that civilisation may be defined as the extension of communication, the growing ease with which mankind makes its thoughts, its feelings. its aspirations, known. With speech came the possibility of human progress: with hieroglyphics, writing, men could communicate across space and time; with the telegraph putting a girdle round the globe, the great globe shrank, and the human brotherhood was realised more clearly. Now. when a whole nation can listen to its leaders, , when the world can hear the same liv- ’ ing voice, there are hitherto undream-ed-of possibilities for union —or for division. From that magic box may come words of love or of hate, which will injure or heal mankind. There must be . a self-denying ordinance among the nations not to use the radio in peacetime for the dissemination of false news. inflammatory “propaganda.” Radio should have no imperial, revolui ticnary, or “ideological" purpose. ' MODERN PANDORA’S BOX. ■ Once upon a time, it was said that the country which ruled the waves ruled

the world. Now it may He said that any country which could rule ,the wavelengths would rule' the world. But since every country can, if it pleases, flood the air with disruptive talk, it is imperative that An international understanding should be reached on what is permissible and desirable in radio diffusion, .The .original- motto of the British Broadcasting Corporation was: “Nation shall speak peace unto nation.” Unhappily, nations are not speaking peace to each other. They are too often indulging in national “propaganda,” in “ideological” fulminations, which leap unchecked over boundaries, and drofc the explosive bombs of hate, of fear, of false information, of racial, or religious, and of patriotic passions of class animosity ..... By all means let us make a compact to forgo the unworthy. weapon of the incendiary bomb —but let us, above all, strive to pre 7 vent war by agreeing to forgo, among other forms of perilous “propaganda,” the incendiary radiocast. That little radio set is the modern Pandora’s box from which may issue—what? If we adopt a few simple rules, it. may be iriirrieasurabiy ~ productive of good, and may wrap the world in the ether of harmony. 11 is for us to decide. It seems, simple common sense that there should be an international control not only of. a technical but of .a political, social, and human character, of the radio emissions which may vitally affect the relations of peoples.