F.
POLICY COMMITTEE.
Thursday, 28nd. January, 1941.
[Copy on GP/266]

NOTE ON MEMORANDUM FROM COMMITTEE

OF DIRECTORS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS.

Herewith a copy of a memorandum received from the Committee of Directors of Public Relations of the Civil Defence Executive Sub-Committee, with suggestions for action by the Ministry to “create a front-line attitude among the whole population.” The memorandum was considered by a sub-committee of the Planning Committee, who agreed that they could take no action on it until the matters of policy it contained had been decided.

The suggestions in the D.P.R.'s memorandum involve something more than giving a new direction to the home publicity which we carry on as a matter of routine. They call for a definite campaign which cannot be carried out without a certain amount of exhortation and without our admitting responsibility for the general state of opinion in this country. The D.P.R.‘s have evidently found from reports of their Departments that there is some need for such a campaign. We are inclined to agree that measures should be put in hand at once to anticipate a probable falling-off in public confidence and to prepare the public for a more critical stage of the war: but before beginning to work out detailed proposals we would be glad to know how far it is the policy of the Ministry to have anything to do with an intensive campaign which, however much it may be disguised by different forms of words, is in fact concerned with morale. The D.P.R.'s memorandum implies that this subject, which touches all Departments, ought to be our concern, and we are bound to recognise that if we refuse to undertake it the D.P.R.'s Committee may well secure the execution of their ideas in some other way. The effect of such a step on the home publicity work of this Ministry need not be emphasised. If, on the other hand, we agree to carry out the policy they suggest, we may assume from their memorandum a degree of support from their respective departments greater than that which we have hitherto obtained.

22.1.41.

K.C.