C. Letter from Secretary of State for the Colonies to Minister dated 17/1/40.
There is a growing, and now urgent, need for publicity about the British Empire in foreign countries, at home, and in the overseas Empire itself. The need is established by two main facts: the desirability of heartening our own people and proving to them that they are fighting for something worthwhile; and the success of German propaganda in painting a picture of the Empire as decadent, liable to split up, full of disaffection, created by lust for conquest and maintained for the sake of capitalist exploitation. Our own liberalism has given greater opportunities for this propaganda; for British critics and reformers have not only provided Mr. Goebbels with pabulum, but have also helped to create in the minds of many thousands of people an uneasy feeling that there may be much in what the Germans say.
Criticism and reform are necessary, but it is equally necessary, in my submission, that the people of the Empire should be stirred to take greater pride in their own achievements in spreading freedom and progress among half-mankind, and in the nature of the commonwealth as a live and growing association of free peoples. It is also necessary that, where there are troubles, the world should be told what they are and how we are trying to remove them,
before
the Nazi propagandists exploit them, leaving us faintly pursuing.
In my view, publicity on these lines should be conducted, not piecemeal, but as a regular campaign in which all media would be used - the press, broadcasting, films, posters and so on - under co-ordinated direction. This campaign would, of course, have to fit into the framework of general policy adopted by this Ministry, and its details would have to be adjusted to the requirements of the different publicity divisions and their regional specialists.
There is at present no organ of the Ministry charged with the initiation and direction of such a campaign. The Empire Publicity Division was created for the purpose of guiding wartime publicity for the British cause
in
the British Empire. But the specialised knowledge and experience of its members indicate that this Division should be entrusted with the other task also, of course in proper relation to the other divisions.
If this is accepted, additional staffing will plainly be necessary.
The matter has been brought to a head by a letter from Mr. Malcolm MacDonald to the Minister in which he offers the assistance of the Colonial Office in a campaign to place the achievements of our colonial administration before the world.
H.V.H.
20th January, 1940.
If my-previous minute on the need for a concerted programme of publicity for the British Empire is accepted, I have certain concrete propositions to put forward.
1.
B.B.C.
It will be necessary to impress our policy on the B.B.C. through the newly established directorial channel, and to concert with them the means of carrying it out through the medium of radio propaganda.
2.
Films
. There will be room for (i) a sequence of documentary films of the type of “Man of Africa” or “Song of Ceylon”; and (ii) a first-class feature film developing as an exciting story the history of the growth of freedom, referring to the American parallel and stimulus in order to give it an appeal to United States’ audiences.
3.
Pamphlets
. Professor Harlow has put up to me an admirable scheme for a series of pamphlets on Empire subjects, which is at present before the Foreign Publicity Division. This would be in addition to the pamphlets on Empire subjects which are being written in the Oxford Press series. If the scheme is adopted, it will be necessary to entrust it to someone who would give it his whole time. This might be an officer of the Ministry or an employee of an outside firm of publishers (comparable to Mr. Norrington of the Oxford Press). If he were a Ministry employee, he might also perhaps find time to supervise the output of articles and other literary material about the Empire.
4.
Literary and Editorial.
It would, in any case, be essential to have a first-class man in the Ministry, keeping the whole of this side of our literary output under his hand, with responsibility to the Director of Empire Publicity. At the present time, there is an informal arrangement whereby articles produced for other Divisions are submitted for scrutiny in this Division, if they are on Empire topics, at an early stage. But this system is not altogether satisfactory, and it puts extra strain on officers here whose other duties are exacting, a strain that would be intolerable if the volume of publicity reached the dimensions which I think it should have.
5.
Posters.
The projected series on the resources of the Empire is sound, but it does not strike quite the right chord for the campaign that I have in mind. Something more subtle must be thought up in order to convey the idea of growing freedom and economic welfare. We want to show black men using and running medical clinics, or local government institutions, rather than black men carrying loads of cocoa on their heads.
6.
Commercial Contact
. The system of relations with business men now being built up by Mr. Rodgers would be an invaluable channel for putting across this particular aspect of our policy, and a special series of leaflets or similar material would be required to convey it.
7.
Propaganda in Germany.
It would be absolutely essential to bring the E.H. Unit into the campaign. The most scurrilous and lying propaganda against the British Empire is reserved for the German people themselves. I imagine it helps to give them a sense of righteous duty in conducting the war and lancing the boil on the body of civilisation which is the British Empire.
8.
Co-operation with other Government Departments
. If the policy is accepted, an early conference with representatives of the Dominions Office, the Colonial Office and the India and Burma Offices would obviously be called for.
22nd January 1940.
H.V.H.
Empire Publicity Division.
Colonial Office,
Downing Street, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
17th January, 1940.
Dear Reith,
At our meeting last week with the Foreign Secretary we discussed briefly the question of propaganda to counteract German criticisms of our Colonial administration following on the publication of the West Indies Report. Whatever our shortcomings, we have a Colonial record in which we may legitimately take pride, which compares very favourably with that of any other nation, and which should give us plenty of material for propaganda of a positive nature. Our record of constructive achievement in the Colonial field is something which it should be a definite object of our propaganda policy to bring out, and I write to offer you and your staff all the assistance which the Colonial Office can afford in preparing suitable material. The exact form and content of the propaganda material which will have the best effect is of course a matter which the Ministry of Information is in a better position to judge than we are; but I send you the following comments and suggestions for what they are worth.
The central theme of this propaganda might be briefly as follows. In administering the largest Colonial Empire known to history we are doing a complicated, arduous, difficult and often thankless job. We may not be doing it to everybody's satisfaction, but at least we can claim that we are not content to rest on our oars; we are always learning lessons from past experience, and are receptive of new ideas; above all, in the fulfilment of our task we set ourselves a high standard of liberality and reasonableness of mind. Conditions may be unsatisfactory in some Colonies, and grievances are expressed in various parts of the Empire, but our reaction to imperfect conditions is not to hide them and gloss them over, and our reaction to the expression of grievances is not the concentration camp. We are not oppressors, nor are we weak and inefficient administrators; we keep a large number of people over a good portion of the earth's surface in a condition of good order and contentment; we realise that much remains to be done, but we assert at the same time that a very great deal has been accomplished in the spheres of administration and justice, education, health and general social progress.
Our opponents will say that this is the side of the medal we have presented, and it might also be argued that to a large number of neutral observers - people who are not anxious to think evil of us, but who are not too ready to admire - it would appear as just another propaganda campaign and, on the face of it, perhaps no more worthy of credence than German claims to the benefits they have bestowed on occupied Poland. Fortunately there is one piece of
Sir John Reith, G.B.E.
conclusive evidence which should turn the scale and that is the very frequently and strongly expressed opinion - a large number of instances of which could be quoted - of native peoples when faced as they see it with the alternatives of remaining under our rule and of falling under Nazi domination. These peoples have no illusions and no doubts, and it is certain that their instinct is right.
I think this line would be a profitable one to take. It is realistic, it strikes a balance between undue diffidence and the appearance of undue complacency and, above all, it bears, I think, the stamp of truth and will be recognised as the truth.
Taking this as the central theme, I can think of some topics which might be worked up into material for use by the appropriate sections of the Ministry of Information. There could be collated into a single short document details of the economic and social development work in the Colonies initiated and financed from here in the last 20 years, including of course work done under the Colonial Development Act since 1929. To induce a proper sense of proportion, we might in another document draw attention to the fact that the bad conditions which are from time to time pointed out and rightly criticised both officially and unofficially are not peculiar to British Colonies or indeed to Colonies at all - the publications of the Social Welfare Sections of the League of Nations would supply ample ammunition for this. If and when the new Colonial Development Scheme (which was mentioned at our discussion with the Foreign Secretary) is announced, it should be the subject of careful elaboration, not as a new departure which might betoken an attack of conscience on our part, but as the logical and normal development of our whole policy towards dependent peoples. Finally, I think that effective use might be made of the fact that the outbreak of war was the occasion of an immediate and totally spontaneous flood of expressions of loyalty from the most diverse sources, both official and unofficial.
Should these or any other lines seem to you and your staff worthy of further pursuit, we in this Office will, as I have said, be very glad to do all that we can to collect the necessary material and assist in its preparation.
I am giving further careful consideration to the questions of -
(a) the desirability of publishing the West Indies Report,
(b) the best date for publication, if publication is decided upon,
and will write to you again on these points as soon as possible.
