341 343 - 3 - 344 - 4 -

SECRET
POLICY COMMITTEE
12th September 1940

Present :

Minister

Director-General

Deputy Director-General

Deputy Secretary

Sir Maurice Peterson

Mr. Ivor Fraser

Sir Kenneth Clark

Mr. Nicolson

Mr. Macadam

Mr. Bamford

Mr. Wellington

Mr. Leigh Ashton

Mr. Harvey

Mr. Tree

Mr. Hodson

Mr. Peake

Mr. Gates

Mr. Carton

Mr. Wiltshire (Secretary)

Mr. Ogilvie

Sir Stephen Tallents

Sir Noel Ashbridge

Sir Campbell Stuart

Mr. Shaw

1. CANADIAN TRANSMITTER

The paper circulated was considered. The views of the B.B.C. and the Broadcasting Division were that the use of the Canadian transmitter should be on the basis of an Imperial co-operative project. The proposal put to the Canadian Government should thus not be confined to the mere allocation of six or more hours of programme time to us, and the programme put out would generally fall into three parts: that produced by Canada for Canada, that produced by material picked up from the B.B.C. and relayed, and that produced by a nucleus staff sent from here. It was generally agreed that we should avoid the appearance of “preparation for evacuation” and if possible the initiative should appear to come from Canada. In answer to a question from Sir Campbell Stuart as to ownership of the station, Sir Stephen Tallents suggested that outwardly it should be Canadian; actually, the precise allocation should be negotiated.

The Director-General said that whatever the outward appearance we must be prepared to provide the whole station. The next stage would be to put the proposal to the Treasury and having got Treasury consent, we should then consult the Dominions Office as to the best way to put the proposal to the Canadian Government. Sir Campbell Stuart asked that he 342 - 2 -should he a party to the negotiations at the stage at which the Dominions Office and the Canadian Government were to be brought in.

2. BROADCASTING - HOME NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

The paper circulated was discussed. In answer to the Minister, Mr. Ogilvie explained that home broadcasting on the medium wave had been interfered with to a very considerable extent last week. He also noted that the B.B.C. (who had not taken part in the preparation of the paper) had one or two criticisms to make in detail; referring in particular to paragraph (6), he thought it out of the question to approach the Air Ministry at this time with this proposal which would tend to assist enemy navigation. The right course was to go ahead with the preparation of the low- powered stations and to take the matter up with the Air Ministry as soon as the present intense phase moderated. There was no reason, however, to delay taking a decision on the re-allocation of a short wave transmitter.

The Minister enquired what would have to be sacrificed if a short wave transmitter were devoted to home broadcasting. Sir Noel Ashbridge replied that while no items or programmes need necessarily be curtailed, reception in different parts of the Continent might suffer to a certain extent. He also pointed out that while the short wave for home use would in theory be satisfactory, many complaints would be received from people in the country who were not used to the type of adjustment required for receiving it. In answer to the Minister, the B.B.C. took the view that even the cheaper sets nowadays were capable of receiving the short wave. Sir Maurice Peterson said that he was dubious about putting entertainment in front of foreign news (paragraph (6) of the memorandum). Sir Noel Ashbridge (giving his personal opinion) said that he thought it would be advisable to depreciate the foreign service for a little. The other transmitters would be coming on and might be expected to ease the position before long.

The Director-General considered that it was more important that the people at home should be kept in touch with the news. The Minister agreed.

It was decided that the Air Ministry should not be approached at the present time, that the use of the short wave transmitter should be transferred and that an agreed memorandum should be prepared for the Cabinet in accordance with paragraph (7) of the memorandum.

Mr. Ogilvie referred to an observation made to him by the Prime Minister that the B.B.C. would shortly be asked to supply 200 skilled men. This might well require a drastic alteration in the B.B.C.'s activities, e.g. closing down at 6.0 p.m. or the cutting out of Scotland. A letter from the Secretary of State for Air supported by the Prime Minister was read to the Committee, in which a “few score or even a hundred” men were asked for, of the £300 to £500 rank. Sir Noel Ashbridge explained that the B.B.C. had certain training difficulties. They were obliged to recruit from persons with little background knowledge and to endeavour to train them “on site”. The lack of background knowledge in the lower grades was, however, of less importance than their lack of station experience. He had hoped that the request from the Air Ministry would be for men of less standing, which would have been easier to meet. The Director-General enquired whether all possible steps were being taken to maintain the training position. He suggested that a technical school might be taken or one of the stations might be allocated as a school, now, or when one of the new transmitting stations came into action. Sir Noel Ashbridge did not think that a school training could be adapted to supply lack of station experience and (with regard to the second suggestion) thought that it would be very difficult to make one of the stations available.

Possible sources of recruits were discussed. It was suggested that there might be suitable men in the Army or that there might still be some amateurs who could be brought forward. The B.B.C., however, thought that both their own efforts and those of the Ministry of Labour had probably combed out all the men of the type evidently required. The only suggestion which appeared likely to yield any new material was that there might be suitable men amongst the refugees. A Belgian wireless expert was referred to, and it was agreed that we should take up with the Belgian Ambassador the possibility of getting him released. The Director-General thought it fitting that refugees should if possible supply technical men to assist with their own national programmes.

After further discussion the Minister thought that the B.B.C. were probably doing all that could be usefully done to maintain the training position and agreed that a section should be put in the memorandum to the Cabinet explaining the difficulties into which the B.B.C. were put when required to supply trained staff.