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POLICY COMMITTEE
12th June 1940

Present:

D.G. (Later)

D.D.G.

D.S.

Lord Perth

Sir Kenneth Clark

Mr. Kirkpatrick

Mr. Macadam

Mr. Peake

Mr. Wellington

Mr. Gates

Mr. Bamford

Mr. Tree

Lord Davidson

Mr. Beddington

Mr. Francis

Mr. Cowan

Mr. Hodson

Mr. Maclennan

Mr. Radcliffe

Mr. Lints Smith

Sir Frederick Whyte

Mr. Vaughan

Mr. Ryan

Mr. Rodgers

Mr. Wiltshire (Secretary)

Sir Walter Monckton took the Chair.

1. SHOP WINDOW SCHEME

Mr. Francis explained that a scheme for displaying enlarged photographs in shop windows had been suggested. Some shops had offered to pay the cost of enlargement, and it appeared that if it was agreed in principle that we should adopt this medium of showing our photographs we could do so without cost to ourselves. It was agreed that Mr. Francis should discuss with Finance the amount which should be charged on this basis, and when this was settled we should approach the organisations suggested and endeavour to put the scheme into operation. He also mentioned that he had been approached by local committees of the National Savings Group with a similar request. They themselves had no money, and the question arose whether we should agree and if so who should pay. The Deputy Secretary explained that in general it was understood with the Treasury that when the Ministry of Information agreed to carry out a campaign on behalf of other Departments the cost would fall on the Ministry vote. The National Savings Group were the exception and they paid for their own advertisement. I appeared better that the headquarters organisation of the National Savings Group should be approached officially with the project, and it was agreed that the Secretariat should issue a letter.

2. PRISONERS OF WAR

Mr. Francis mentioned a ruling of the Cabinet that prisoners of war were only to be photographed in transit to their camps, and said that the question had now been raised whether other types of photographs might not have propaganda value. Mr. Kirkpatrick was in favour of using such photographs in certain countries abroad, and it was agreed that we should ask for the principle to be re-considered. The Director General was about to reply to a semi-official letter addressed to him by Brigadier Penney, and this decision could be communicated in it.

(The Director General entered and took the Chair)

3. NEWS BULLETINS

Mr. Wellington referred to the question of the frequency of the Home News Bulletins. As Mr. Ogilvie was not present it was agreed to postpone this until the next day. Deputy Secretary enquired if it would be possible to make clear in the Bulletins to what period the Official Communiqué related. Sir Walter Monckton stated that he had taken this up with the Air Ministry, but it was not certain what reply would be given. Lord Perth enquired whether when official bulletins were repeated, but additional information was given on the occasion of the repetition, the additional information would not be given first. Mr. Ryan explained the difficulty that the addition sometimes arrived very late and the editors were unable to reconstruct the part of the news concerned on the basis suggested by Lord Perth.

4. REQUEST FROM THE SPECTATOR

The Director General explained that the Parliamentary Secretary had been approached by the editor of the “Spectator” who said that the ration given him by the Paper Controller would seriously hamper the production of his paper in its present form. He required an additional quantity of paper of the order of 420 cwt. a quarter, and asked whether we would not back his application. It was explained that under existing arrangements our backing of an application would mean that the addition was taken out of our ration. The quantities of paper involved in periodicals was so large that it had been decided at the Policy Committee Meeting of June 6th that we should not give any consideration to such applications at least until our own ration had been fixed. Mr. Lints Smith said that several applications of this sort had been received, and he was afraid that if we selected journals we should be inundated with applications from others. It was thought in principle we could only back projects in which we had a direct interest such as the Supplement to “Picture Post”. Accordingly we were unable to assist the present application from the “Spectator”.

5. HOME PUBLICITY DIVISION & PLANNING COMMITTEE

The Director General explained that he had not yet concluded his talks with the Minister on the subject, but that the Minister had already indicated that he wished for much more action in Home propaganda. He had decided that the Home Publicity Division should be reconstituted with a Planning Committee attached. The Home Publicity Division and the Planning Committee would take their instructions from the Policy Committee to whom their plans would be submitted. Immediately the assent of the Policy Committee was obtained the Home Publicity Division would be responsible for carrying them out. The Heads of Divisions concerned in producing material required for home publicity purposes would be members of the Planning Committee.