Nov. 14, This day seventeen years ago, 1922, broadcasting commenced in Great ' Britain, and from a medium of entertainment the radio has grown to be probably the most import~ ant propaganda weapon in the world. It is interesting to remember this for only on Sunday, Mr, Winston Churchill broadcast to the world a survey of the first ten weeks of war in one of the most encouraging speeches which have fallen from British leaders since the outbreak of hostilities, Thus throughout the English-speaking world it was possible on Sunday to listen to the level statements of a man who is regarded by the Nazis as their worst enemy, and the personi~ fication of everything which they hate. It is because of the studied moderation of what he said—except for a few verbal fireworks applying apt descriptions to some of the German leaders,—that_ the speech should prove of value to the British cause, certainly more assistance to it, than anything which the Germans have broadcast has been to theirs.
Apart from calling Herr Hitler and Herr von Ribbentrop diplomatically "prodigious con-tertianists," informing the world that Britain and France were far better prepared to endure the worst malice of "Hitler and his Huns" and refraining from attempting to prophecy whether the "frenzy of a cornered maniac will drive Hitler into the worst of all his crimes," Mr. Churchill has put forward the British position with the detached calm of the chairman of a company at its annual general meeting of shareholders. At the same time he made it quite clear what Great Britain considers is at stake in this present struggle. The fate of the Netherlands and Belgium, like that of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria will be decided by the British Empire and the French Republic. "If we are conquered, all will be enslaved and the United States will be left single-handed to guard the rights of man. If we are not destroyed all these countries will be rescued and restored to life and freedom." Mr. Churchill did not pose the issue in those blunt words merely for a few chosen listeners, but for everyone who understands English and could listen into the broadcast. Even Germans, if they chose to run the risk of dire penalty'could have heard what he said, but most of them dare not listen in, It is a striking contrast between the British concept of freedom and the German scheme of complete and enslaving control, Indeed the freedom which British and French listeners-in are permitted is one of the most important tests of the general situation, Why should the German Goyernment be afraid of its people listening to foreign broadcasts, unless it is because of fear lest the people should become apprised of all that up to the moment had been with= held from them? Why is it that the Nazis are using every possible means to prevent the German people listening to both sides of the question unless it arises from a realization of the fact that the truth is not in the German cause, and that the people have been bull-dozed into a blind uncomprehending faith in the ridiculous statements with which Berlin has been spoon-feeding the German population, and that the Government now fears their disillusionment? Apart from that, there is as much difference between British' and German methods over the radio as there is between chalet and cheese. On the one hand there is the steady unimpassioned retailing of the news, of Government declarations, of criticism where
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.