IN THE ETHER

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1932, Page 8

IN THE ETHER

THE WORLD OF WIRELESS A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY The historians, who, in the future will l>e charged with the difficult task of fixing the principal traits of ! our time, will say that at wvs mainly,a period of wars. The world is divided into different countries, all ‘leading wars with one another —economic wars, tariff wars, which end up in military wars, which are the fatal conclusion of this state of affairs. All the great inventions, the marvellous and awe-inspiring disc'dveres or science become instruments of propaganda and national expansion in the hands of the leaders of each great country. For the last few years this ,ias been the case as regards air navigation and the new means of expression such is the cinema. And also, and this with an alarming increase of acuteness and vehemence, as regards the; wireless.

WONDERFUL IN PRINCIPLE. This wonderful invention, enabling, us to enter into direct and immediate communication with each other, and. which in principle could be the. means, of bringing the whole world a moral regress comparable to the material progress, it realises, is utilised to dei iuj and to. propagate all different social k'errs. AVireless, which could de.tvibe and demonstrate everything,; Aupild 'bring clarification and shed 1 ight on .r.u aspects of our modern* life, is in stead, helping amongst the public a conformist orthodox}’. More,. since nations are individual in a state of reciprocal anta'ioni.m. the wireless, jin general an intermediary for conformist culture, becomes, in particular, an intermediary, for nationalist propaganda.

INEVITABLE CONFLICTS. The result are inevitable conflicts and attempts on every Side to poison tne ether with national propaganda,, against that of the others. . X meanti of .expression, such as the r dip in, Europe, is actually cautiously guarded by the Government. No text can be "broadcast that does not show thp stamp of the Governmet. The private fir pis that exploit the boardcasting 1 stations of 5 the world do this for commercial, not political purposes. Furthermore, the censor is very careful in what he admits for broadcasting, and the entire police 'apparatus is watching that only words favourable to the social and national politics are broadcast. •" / Not many have been able to overcome these formidable barriers. Either they have been arrested after ‘the attempt or, in spite of their effprts, they have not had the thean.3 of casting texts that, are not in harmony with the superior interests of official propaganda constitutes a universal battle being wages in the ether, a battle of two aspects :

U.S.S.R. V. GERMANY. : The .first one, the battle between the broadcasting stations of the capitalistic regime and those of the U.S.S.R. In or’aer to combat the exremely powerful Soviet station. Clitchelkovo, Germany has led veritable campaigns and a new station has sprung up in Rumania under German control, ihe German station, Koenigswusterhausen, has the specie 1 task of furnishing antiSoviet materials, against which the new Russia, which has the intention of building a new station of. 500,.(!) kilowatt, is riposting in all languagesSecondly: there is an acute war of the waves going on between the nationalists of the divers -countries. The Polish station, RAZIN, has the task, of defending, the Polish pretensions and the European conservative against those countries, led by Germany, that are fighting ag'inst. the status quo of after the war and for the revision of the treaties. Peoples and national minorities are systematic-; ally belaboured by these wireless transmissions. In Alsatia appeals of German and French origin are combating one another. The same is the case in Belgium, which is leading a sonorous offensive against Germany, and which is going to build for this purpose a station at Eupen, that will broadcast in the German'language. Italy 'by waves and vibrations is overflowing Southern France, Corsica, Tunis— and the Balkans. The latest news is tliat ah enormous station is to be erected in the duchy of Luxembourg under French control, for the purpme of making propaganda for conferences- *r.nd documentations in French and German.

INCREASING POWER. - 1 Naturally, all this results in an ef-fw.-t of all connt’-ies to increase the power of their clivers stations. A , so- , oruus,, artillery of ever increasing Powerfulness is to be expected, and the stations of hundred kilowatts and more are continuously increasing. Two years ago Europe had 200 wireless stations representing a total powerfulness cf 800 kilowatts. To-day there are 251 posts representing 2800 kilowatts. The dirturbances and interruptions caused bv the network, o' all these waves'caused’the establishing of a kind of radiophonic Loiarno. tin Prague Rla • ~ Hcli was introduce l in Oj-der to attribute to each country a Certain limit of waxeiengt'ii and freqiuiicies. so as to " vr 'id the mP'-'er-one-os tint were annihilating the transmiwions. But to-day, the pail g..en to the different countries due- not suffice them. For the powerfulness of the stations, for their supremacy, a

battle is being waged exactly comparable to one -between cannons, warship.;, or aeroplanes. Exactly the same kind of battle with a different face. Everyone wants to be stronger and greater than his neighbour, so as to be able to overwhelm him and silence him. On a large scale, taking place in the ether, Europe gives the impression of a public meeting, with .about 12 different orators all speaking at once and attempting to overshout the others and them to shelve by their powerfulness. All this constitutes an immediate danger. Such diplomatic incidents as h-.ve already occurred because of the purport of certain broadcastings are sure to occur again, and, quite possibly, they may be the cause of a new* and fatal war.