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POLICY COMMITTEE
Minutes of Seventeenth Meeting.
26th April 1940.

PRESENT :

Minister

D.G.

D.D.G.

D.S.

Lord Perth

Sir Kenneth Clark

Mr. Kirkpatrick

Mr. Tree

Secretary

57. Minutes of Last Meeting .

(52) Chart of the General Production Division was approved subject to the position of Mr. McCullough being further discussed. Photographic Department to go back to the Public Relations Group.

(53) It was agreed that Departments should be approached about using the Clip-Sheet for their circulars. It was explained that the Foreign Press Review was not a review of the whole press but a propaganda sheet for use and not information. It was agreed that a slip should be sent out on one of the copies pointing this out.

58. B.B.C. Record of Propaganda Broadcasts for March. P.C. No. 26 .

It was agreed that this should be circulated as an Appendix to the next Monthly Report.

59. Pamphlets

Sir Kenneth Clark reported that the length of time of production could be diminished. It was necessary to get good copywriters. If these were obtained, it was generally better to produce pamphlets here, and only sub-contract when it was not possible to do this. The delays were due to the necessity for having material carefully checked by various people. It was pointed out that the material for pamphlets should be sent in perfect condition and should not be subject to alteration after it had reached production stage.

It was agreed that Mr. McKnight Kauffer should be approached. The difficulty of his nationality was discussed, and the Minister said he was prepared to justify his employment as Adviser on the lay-out side.

It was agreed that Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries should receive pamphlets, and action should be expedited on placing them on a table in the House of Commons Library. Sir Kenneth Clark was hastening action on a bookstall in the Ministry.

60. Posters

Sir Kenneth Clark advocated a series of background posters on big hoardings. Agreed that he should circulate a note.

61. U.S.A.

Necessity that newspapers should send good correspondents to U.S.A. was emphasised. The Minister referred to a talk with Mr. Kennedy in which he had criticised the B.B.C. and Ministry of Information as being “non-starters in the art of propaganda”.

62. News Division

The Minister referred to the decision that there should be three Branches of the Division: Censorship, under Mr. Radcliffe, Press and Public Relations, and Extraction of News. These three Branches might or might not ultimately come under a Controller.

63. Relations with the Services .

Sir Walter Monckton reported that Admiral Macnamara had been appointed to act with General Tripp as Naval Liaison in the Ministry. Another man would be appointed from the Air Ministry to act with Group-Captain Bradley, and the War Office side was now covered by Colonel Neville and another G.S.0.1. A paper by Sir Walter Monckton was read (P.C. 27 198/00)

64. Journalists in Norway

The difficulty of the War Office attitude was noted. Sir Walter Monckton undertook to communicate with D.M.I. to ask for an over-riding maximum to the number of correspondents to be allowed. We would then assume responsibility for the allocation of the places amongst representatives of the press.

65. Broadcasting to Italy from Antibes

Lord Perth mentioned that these negotiations had been well carried out by Mr. Wilson of the B.B.C., and suggested that a note should be sent to him.

66. Germans v. Nazis

Sir Kenneth Clark asked for further directions. It was generally agreed that it would be better to avoid this particular issue for the time.