RADIO LINKS THE EMPIRE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 December 1939, Page 8

RADIO LINKS THE EMPIRE

One Of The Miracles Of The Century Is Broadcasting’s Great "‘Gei Together’’ On Christmas Day

(By

A. C.

L.

HRISTMAS is Christmas the world over, at least so far as most of us are concerned. But for the last few years it has had a special significance for Britons Overseas who, through the magic of radio, have been able to join with their friends in Great Britain in a world-wide family party of which the Christmas message of H.M. the King is the central and culminating point. So, on Christmas afternoon the big family of the British Empire will be gathered round, and many visitors will join the festive board. If television were an accomplished fact, and we could "look-in" on some of the remote spots to which the programme penetrates, we should: find very curious contrasts. Winter snows, summer sunshine, all hours of the day and night as the clock moves from west to east and back again round the circle of the globe; crowds disporting themselves on tropical beaches, in a temperature of 100 degrees or more; a few listeners round a stove in Little America in the Antarctic darkness. First to Canada Television is still a thing of the future, so our "looking-in" must be a thing of fancy, and as the. kaleidoscope turns and the pictures dissolve and form again we may travel like the ether waves many thousands of miles in a few seconds. Our first visit is to a hospital in Baffin Land, Canada, where darkness reigns for almost half the year. News Bulletins are eagerly awaited, for only one mail arrives each twelve months. In the matron’s office stands a clock kept correct by Big Ben’s chimes. Outside is a frozen world under the spell of an Arctic winter, but inside along the corridor drifts the sound of laughter and applause. It is Christmas time, and over the intervening miles comes the sound of London activities, so clearly that even the little asides

of the dancers can be heard and appreciated. To them in their solitude the Empire Service means a constant link with the world of ordinary people, and now they are never alone any more. "Robinson Crusoe" in Singapore The kaleidoscope changes. A tiny island in the Straits of Singapore, with a single bungalow, where a modern "Robinson Crusoe" lives, with only a Chinese cook-boy and a coolie for company. Seven years ago he retired to "Shady Place," where newspapers do not penetrate and the nearest Post Office is ten miles away across a ferry. "Nights without number are pitch dark, breathless, hot, and silent almost as the grave," he writes. "It is not too much to say that but for radio I could not have endured this isolation. The receiving set stands for the moment dismantled, as the boys, for the second time this month, have just blown out the entire set of valves." Their master, as he prepares to make the long journey to fetch another set, bitterly observes: "There ought to be two small graves on this island now." Winter and Summer Another turn. Delegate, on the slopes of the Snowy Mountains, is one of the coldest places in Australia, and in June (winter time) the temperature is below freezing point. During the test cricket broadcasts 82 trappers sat round a great log fire in the open air until -half-past three in the morning. No hut was big enough to accommodate so many listeners, and as they had jointly subscribed for the purchase of a receiver, the only way for them to enjoy it was to sit in the open. A few sheets of galvanised iron protected the set and the men kept warm by the aid of the

fire and their furs and rugs. But for them Christmas is in summer and they listen in on Christmas Day in much more pleasant circumstances. High Up in Africa Africa next ... Tanganyika .... two hundred and fourteen miles from the nearest railway, two hundred miles from the airport Mbeya, five thousand feet up in the southern highlands. All the chores are done, servants away to their huts, the small community of British men and women get down to creating the atmosphere. "Dress: Pyjamas and dressing gowns. Scene: Sun-dried brick bungalow with grass thatch, a roaring log fire, chairs pulled as near as possible, windows closed to keep out musically inclined flying beetles, moths, etc. London is calling — calling to Empire listeners. We all feel a sort of chilly goosey thrill. That’s us ... Empire listeners." We in New Zealand Uganda, Frujillo, Peru . . . where the listener in a tent miles from anywhere out in the Peruvian desert, sits at his radio . . . The Gold Coast, Asma, Havana, Burma, Rhodesia, India . . . and we in New Zealand. On Christmas Day we will be listening. In Kenya Colony, where reception is sometimes drowned by lions roaring within four hundred yards of the house . in the Punjab ... in Ceylon, where seven thousand feet up, during the wet season, two monsoons fighting together make listening almost impossible . . . on the Gold Coast, where batteries have to go two hundred miles for re-charging; in Nova Scotia, where Big Ben shakes the house every time he strikes . . . on board steamers off Archangel in the White Sea ... at Haifa, Palestine, in Haiti, the black republic, in the Falklands and the Cape Verde Islands . . . north, south, east and west the family will be waiting. LONDON CALLING TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE ... Miraculous, magical words on Christmas Day... ae girdle round the earth."