SECRET
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Wednesday 16th July, 1941

Present:

D.G.

D.D.G.

Lord Davidson

Mr. Radcliffe

Mr. Bamford

Mr. Gates

Mr. Kirkpatrick

Mr. Ryan

Mr. Waddell (Secretary)

1. The minutes of the meeting on 15th July were taken as read and approved.

2. CONTROL OF B.B.C .

(a) The Ministry's obligation to exercise editorial control of the Home Service was discussed. Mr. Ryan pointed out that there was not at present machinery in existence for him to keep the Ministry in daily touch with the output and projected output of the B.B.C. and to obtain authoritative instructions from the Ministry. It was accordingly agreed that he should see the Director-General at 9.30 each morning for the above purpose. Major points could be adjourned to the Executive Board.

[X/66]

(b) The question of the power of Duty Room to issue instructions to the B.B.C. was raised. It was agreed that on questions of the immediate treatment of news the Chairman of Duty Room had discretion to issue instructions to the B.B.C. through Mr. Macgregor. Mr. Macgregor would be responsible for informing the Ministry's Home and Foreign Advisers, if not present in Duty Room, of the instructions issued and either Adviser, if he disagreed with them, would have the right of appeal to the D.G.

(c) Mr. Ryan emphasised that he had regarded his functions as confined to editorial control, i.e. he had regarded questions of administration as outside his province. Mr. Kirkpatrick, on the other hand, said that he had been obliged to intervene to a considerable extent in internal matters of administration in the Overseas Services. It was agreed that the responsibilities of the Advisers and of the Ministry's Broadcasting Division in these matters could not be defined at present but should receive attention as soon as possible.

3. DEBATE IN THE LORDS. The D.D.G. reported a discussion he had had the previous evening with Lord Moyne who, it appeared, was likely to support strongly the policy laid down for the Ministry in the statement made by the Lord President to the House of Commons. It was agreed that someone should be in attendance who could advise on press and censorship points which might arise during the debate.

4. PAYMENT BY NEWSPAPERS FOR EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY THE MINISTRY The D.D.G. referred to instances in the past where the Counter Propaganda Bureau had been asked to supply material for private purposes. He said the question whether newspapers should be charged for exclusive material made available by the Ministry was likely to arise in an acute form in connection with serialisation of a book by Mr. Eric Linklater. It seemed that the War Office had committed themselves to employing Mr. A.P. Watt, a literary agent, and that the Stationery Office did not wish to under-take the arrangements for serialisation. There was no objection to the employment of Mr. Watt and it had been made clear to him that his responsibility was to secure the best newspaper from the publicity point of view without disregarding the desirability of securing a fee for the exclusive use of the material.

[6P/]

The difficulty was that there might be complaint from the newspapers about the request for a fee and about the policy of granting exclusivity. Mr. Radcliffe suggested that it would be improper for the Ministry to permit one newspaper to make a scoop out of material available to most newspapers in varying degrees but stopped at an earlier stage by censor-ship; but it was agreed that this consideration was unlikely to affect the Linklater question.

5. PROPAGANDA IN THE MIDDLE EAST . (See Item 1 of the meeting on 15th July). Lord Davidson mentioned the possibility of using Sir Wyndham Deedes for the post of assistant to Capt. Iyttelton and the D.D.G. agreed to discuss the suggestion with Sir Horace Wilson.