C.la/41
SECRET
EXTENSION OF THE B.B.C.'S OVERSEAS SERVICES

(1) The Ministry of Information has invited the B.B.C. to put forward proposals for a large extension of its overseas services and to frame them on the assumption that all priorities in the supply of equipment, accommodation, labour and staff necessary to secure its achievement would be forthcoming. As a rough measure of the scale on which such an increase should be contemplated, the Ministry has indicated a possible trebling of the present output. The B.B.C. welcomes the opportunity of setting out in concrete terms of equipment and staff the reinforcement which it sees as necessary, if the advantages enjoyed by the enemy through his geographical position and his seizure of broadcasting stations in other countries are to be minimised and the British overseas broadcasting service made a fully effective instrument of national policy.

(2) In framing its proposals, the B.B.C. has been guided by a view of the purposes which, in the years immediately ahead, a substantially reinforced overseas broadcasting service might fulfil, It should with enhanced power convey to all parts of the world truthful news and a prompt, clear and insistent exposition of British policy. It should with growing force counter and discredit the enemy cause within the enemy countries and among populations subject to enemy occupation. It should bring Britain closer to the various parts of the Empire, to British forces serving abroad, to British ships at sea and to the United States, It should encourage the allies of Britain and serve, better than it can at present, those allied governments now seated in London which depend on the B.B.C. for communication with their peoples at home, their territories overseas, their armed forces abroad and their merchant seamen. It should present the British cause persistently and convincingly to neutral countries. Each of these purposes is already important. The importance of each seems bound to grow as the war proceeds, bound again to take on a fresh significance when the other forms of national armament are leashed during peace negotiations and during the period of European resettlement which must follow a British victory.

(3) The foundation of any such development must be the schedule of broadcasting services which it would provide to different countries or zones of the world. An appendix, showing without undue detail the essential outlines of such a schedule and comparing its output with that of the present overseas services, accompanies this paper. In brief, as the summary at the end of that Appendix shows, the new schedule would provide in the several overseas services the following increases in the hours of transmitted programmes:-

As is explained in that appendix, the high rate of increase for the European services is accounted for by the introduction of a system of non-stop transmissions during a large part of every twenty-four hours to France, Germany and Italy. In those transmissions, for the convenience of listeners, essential items, such as news bulletins, would be made to recur at a fixed time in every hour, but their demands on staff would be lessened by the consequent repetition of much of the material included in them.

(4) This schedule is based upon observation and experience of the different needs, in terms of broadcasting, of different countries. It has been framed to provide each of the more important communities of the world with an effective broadcast service from Britain in a language familiar to it at the hours when that service is most likely to be heard. It contemplates not only an extended regular service but a service adjusted with much more discrimination, than present resources allow, to the point of view, the taste and the language of each country to which it is directed. Such increased discrimination has already within recent months proved its value, for example in the B.B.C.'s services to North America and to France. Without it British broadcasting cannot hope to command its full potential audience, or to persuade broadcasting authorities to pick up and rebroadcast, on the always more widely heard medium waves, programmes which can reach them from Britain on the short waves alone.

(5) To give effect to so largely increased a schedule would, in time of peace, be a complex operation requiring time for its achievement. In time of war its complexity and the time which must be allowed for its achievement are multiplied by shortages of material, labour and a qualified staff. It is well to indicate, since a failure in any one of them would prevent or delay the scheme's accomplishment, the main factors involved in its development. These are new transmitters, suitable new accommodation, staff with technical and other expert qualifications, recording equipment and material, control room equipment, special telephone lines, news tape and teleprinter services and dollar exchange. If it were decided to go ahead with this scheme, it would be necessary to plan simultaneously the provision of all these elements. Outstanding among them are, (i) the purchase and erection of new transmitters, (ii) the recruitment of the necessary staff, and (iii) the acquisition of suitable buildings to accommodate them. It may therefore be well to give in this paper some particulars of these three requirements without entering into details of the other factors noted above.

(6) Transmitters . The long and medium wave requirements of the attached schedule can be met under the programme of transmitter erection already approved and in train. A considerable number of additional short-wave transmitters would however be required, and would involve the use of some channels outside the present band allotted to broadcasting. By February next the B.B.C. will be operating 13 high power short-wave transmitters. The scheme outlined in this paper involves the addition of 18 new short-wave transmitters of similar capacity which, the B.B.C. recommends, should be disposed in units of 6 transmitters at 3 separate stations.

(7) If the British services are to reach the various parts of the world at good listening times, it is impossible to avoid peak hours at which a number of transmissions coincide. Hence the large number of new short-wave transmitters demanded by this schedule - a number which could only be reduced by transmitting some of the proposed services at less suitable hours than those for which the schedule provides. On the other hand, the estimate 19 - 3 -of 18 transmitters makes no provision for the loss of any of them through enemy action, and, in case of such loss, transmitters employed upon the less important of the scheduled services could, at the cost of less favourable timings for those services, be used to compensate for the loss. Moreover, no provision is made for the possibility of extensive jamming, for which any of the transmitters could be used at fairly short notice. Roughly speaking, the cost of purchasing and erecting 18 transmitters would be of the order of £1,800,000. Recent experience suggests that, given conditions not appreciably worse than at present, the first of the three proposed units of 6 transmitters, even with the fullest priorities, could scarcely be brought into operation within 15 months of construction starting. It seems doubtful whether the manufacturing resources in this country could produce the whole 18 transmitters in a reasonable time. Even if this were possible, most of them would have to be made in one factory, and that would involve too great a risk. Thus at least some part of the plant would probably have to be manufactured in the United States. The transmitter valve position in this country, on which a separate paper has been addressed to the Ministry, might well in itself affect policy in this respect. Apart from the time required for the manufacture and erection of transmitters, the selection in consultation with the Service Departments of sites for the transmitting stations would itself take some time. At least two years should be allowed for the completion of all three units.

(8) Staff . It is estimated very roughly that the new scheme, including the necessary additional engineering and administrative staff required for the overseas services upon their separation from the home service, would add some 2750 to the present establishment. This addition must include competent technical staff, staff with broadcasting and news experience, and linguists of fidelity expert in more than 30 languages.

(9) The demands of the Services for technical staff have already depleted the Corporation's resources. Even when full allowance has been made for the possibilities of training staff and of enlisting men from overseas, serious difficulty is here anticipated. Staff with experience of broadcasting and the handling of news can be secured only by the release of a limited number of experts now in the Services, combined with the training of new recruits without previous broadcasting or news experience. Linguistic experts in a number of languages have throughout been difficult to obtain. This applies specially to the nationals of neutral countries, who tend either to refuse to come to the United Kingdom in present conditions, or make, as a condition of their coming, extravagant salary demands which cannot easily be met without repercussions throughout the foreign staff.

(10) Accommodation. Estimates have been prepared of the premises that would be needed to provide working accommodation for the staff required to produce the programmes demanded by the accompanying schedule. Into that estimate enter much more complicated factors than those involved in the re-housing of an administrative staff. The buildings must be served by a telephone cable system which will enable the interchange of programmes between the different services, broadcasts in the Home Service, for example, being made available simultaneously to the Empire, and programmes in the service to France to French Canada, North Africa and the Cameroons, Complete control rooms must be provided; studios must be prepared, and recording equipment and news agency tape machines obtained to match the extended programme demands. As in the case of the transmitting stations, it might be found essential to obtain much of the necessary apparatus in the United States. If the service is not to be interrupted by air raid alarms or destroyed by bombing damage, a considerable proportion 20 - 4 -of the accommodation must be protected and an emergency power supply provided. Since the services will run throughout the 24 hours, sleeping and catering facilities must be available.

(11) It would be inappropriate in this short paper to examine such considerations as these in detail. They are mentioned only to show the special difficulties and the unavoidable delays which the establishment of a new broadcasting centre involves. In broad outline, the estimate shows that, if the attached schedule is to be realised, it will be necessary for the B.B.C. to acquire outside Broadcasting House, though in or near London, and to equip with the facilities essential for broadcasting, premises on a scale which would provide working conditions of considerable variety for a working staff at any one given time of at least 1,500. It would further be improvident so long as London is subject to enemy bombing, to embark on the construction of additional transmitters without providing an insurance for their continued use in the shape of alternative equipped accommodation for the housing of the programme staff. Technical considerations forbid any wide dispersal of the staff employed upon any of the main groups of services envisaged in the schedule. It would, however, be possible, and might be advantageous, to house the staff concerned in not more than three buildings, each of which would be capable, in case of war damage of accommodating, if only in emergency conditions, the personnel contained in the other two.

(12) No accurate estimate of the cost of the developments proposed is possible at this stage. The cost, for example, would differ materially if accommodation had to be constructed instead of being rented. The best estimate that can now be made suggests that the scheme would involve a capital expenditure of the order of £2,300,000 and a revenue expenditure of the order of £2,100,000. If it were found practicable and thought desirable, in spite of the loss of security involved, to house the whole staff in one building, material savings would be effected in this estimate.

(13) Pending consideration by the Ministry of the major scheme thus outlined, it is urgently necessary that the B.B.C. should acquire in London premises equipped to house the staff of the world programme, some elements of which are at present working in the Midlands. The Ministry has asked that this staff may be recalled as soon as possible to premises in or near London. The B.B.C. is not less anxious, in the interests of service efficiency, that the staff should be reunited in this way. On the assumption that at least some extension of the B.B.C.'s present overseas services will be approved, it would be economical to secure for this immediate purpose a building which would also provide for the needs of at least one of the three units envisaged above. Through the good offices of the Ministry, representatives of the B.B.C. are already in consultation with the Ministry of Works about the possibility of securing such accommodation; and it is hoped that the Ministry, in advance of a decision upon the full programme outlined in this paper, will immediately authorise the acquisition, if they can be found, of premises suitable for this immediate and limited purpose.

(14) This paper is confined to proposals for the extension of overseas broadcasting resources within the United Kingdom. Such a scheme would be greatly fortified if it were accompanied by parallel developments in the British Dominions and Colonies. 21 - 5 -All the Dominions and India have already explored the possibilities of short-wave extensions of their broadcasting systems, but primarily on a national rather than an Imperial basis. Similarly the Colonial Office has assembled much material bearing on the development of individual Colonial services. There is thus already available much of the information on which an Imperial development should be based.

(15) The existence of British territories in all parts of the world provides an opportunity for establishing an Imperial broadcasting network with a coverage with which no other country could compete. The importance of such a coverage was recognised some years ago by the enemy countries who, having no comparable overseas bases, had to seek it by less effective means. Germany has for some years been purchasing time from foreign broadcasting organisations, for example in South America, and has otherwise attempted with some success to influence their programmes, Italy, after the Abyssinian war, established a network of stations including Bari, Tripoli and Addis Ababa, by means of which she was able to reach important parts of the Near East by medium-wave transmissions. The Singapore Station and the projected short-wave station in Canada are significant recent examples of what might be done within the British Empire. The aim should be to stimulate the Dominions and Colonies to equip themselves for two purposes, namely, (i) rebroadcasting on medium waves, for reception within their borders and in immediately neighbouring countries, transmissions received by short-wave from other parts of the Empire; (ii) rebroadcasting programmes so received from short-wave stations within their own territories, so as to secure for these programmes a better coverage throughout the world. One caveat, however, should here be entered. The Corporation was able to release senior staff for the Singapore station and has undertaken to provide such staff, if required, for the projected shortwave station in Canada, It would be anxious to place its experience and information at the disposal of any part of the overseas Empire embarking upon such a scheme; but its resources would not allow of its detaching further senior staff. In the Dominions, however, and in some of the more important Colonies there are already available trained men competent to erect and run the necessary stations with little, if any, assistance from the United Kingdom.

Broadcasting House

l4th January, 1941