The question of local broadcasts is receiving attention at the hands of correspondents io this journal. In a place like Shanghai it is a subject which requires the most careful handling, especially at times like these, and if the complaints of correspondents are well founded, it would seem that there is plenty of room for improvement. There is a very great difference in broadcasting technique as employed by diferent nationalities, from the by the British Broadcasting Corporation, to the dispassionate broadcasting of the type adopted
dramatization of news which is adopted in other cases. It is of course no part of the duty of this journal to suggest how other Concerns should conduct their business, For itself it has adopted the policy of adhering to the principles followed by the B.B.C,. involve ing the broadcasting of news without comment, leaving listeners to form their own conclusions. By that means the danger of offending the susceptibilities of other nationals is reduced to a minimum. Not only that, the likelihood of scaring listeners is also greatly minimized, and in such perilous days as these, especially when wrong impressions of what has been heard are often so easily formed, it is highly desirable that the retailing of the news should be carried out with the greatest of restraint. Probably the main difüculty which the compilers of the various news broadcasts have to encounter is the fact that all foreign information is obtained through a number of agencies and is available to those who care to purchase the services. It is then, in the endeavour to be different that the chief danger lies, and in this search for variety of presentation some broadcasters have been going to unusual lengths. Not the least interesting of mistakes which thereby come about was one arising from a lack of sound knowledge of the geography of central Europe the speaker expressing the opinion that Germany might ultimately find it necessary to match on Czechoslovakia through Jugoslavia, It might, of course be done, but it would be quite an unnecessary detour, considering that Germany is already in possession of Austria which abuts on the western and southern borders of the threatened country, upon which Jugoslavia does not.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.