London. Feb. 7.
Democracy's faith in the freedom of speech, even in wartime, was afirmed by the Minister of Information, Mr. A. Dull-Cooper, in the course of a debate in the House of Commons yesterday.
Referring to the relations between the Government and the British Broadcasting Company, the Minister iwas loudly applauded when he said: "We do not want the BBC, to become simply a mouthpiece of the Government. T am all in favour of permitting, not only individual statements to be made by independent peo. ple, but pf permitting criticisms of the' Government, Tt is right that there should be criticism. In so far as opinions do not interfere with the prosecution of the war, all opinions should be freely voiced; that Is the principle upon which T hope the BBC. will be conducted."
Mr. Duff-Cooper compared the British and Nazi methods of pro-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.