London, June 15
The British Government had decided not to set up a peace- time Ministry of Information, but would establish a foreign publicity department in the Foreign Office under Lord Perth, it was announced in the House of Commons today by the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain.
He said that a great deal of valuable work had already been done in spreading knowledge of this country in disseminating accurate inform: tion and counter-acting foreign misrepresentations of British policy by the B.B.C. in their foreign language broadcasts and by the press.
The Foreign Office maintained the necessary contacts with all these channels of publicity. There was reason to suppose that these efforts had been a good deal more effective than generally realised, but Government opinion of their effectiveness could be considerably strengthened if their direction were ce-ordinated and concentrated in a special department.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.