WAR TALKS FROM THE BBC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 53, 28 June 1940, Page 55

WAR TALKS FROM THE BBC

Wide Range Of Speakers And Subjects

Broadcasting Service keeps a watch on Daventry, and besides recording BBC news bulletins, the Service records numbers of broadcasts of experiences and commentaries. Ministers of the Crown, fighting men, war correspondents, publicists of note, civilians who have had some noteworthy ex-perience-these and others talk over the ‘BBC system, and the New Zealand National Broadcasting Service is always on the look-out to record suitable items and present them at a time convenient to listeners. The BBC has well-known regular features bearing on the war, which must now be familiar to listeners. "Cards on the Table," for example, in which once a week Anthony Weymouth interviews someone of note about some war topic. Then there is "Background to the News," which includes comments by members of the fighting forces, and "Matters of Moment," mostly contributed by people in the official world. These three series cover a@ wide range of experience and comment which is very helpful to listeners at this distance. The BBC can draw upon a large number of men who are experts in some particular subject. For instance, there is Vernon Bartlett, a foreign correspondent of long standing, who for six years broadcast regularly for the BBC on "World \ LL day and every day the National

Affairs." Mr. Bartlett is conducting a series from the BBC three times a week called "Britain Speaks." In Wickham Steed, the BBC has coopted one of the most eminent publicists of our time, and the National Broadcasting Service regularly broadcasts recordings of his weekly talks on "World Affairs," Wickham Steed chose with deliberation the career of a foreign correspondent, and prepared himself for it by University study in Germany and France. One may read his account of the process in "Through Thirty Years," a most valuable book for an understanding of the European situation before and during the war of 1914-18. Very few men know the Europe of the last forty years as Wickham Steed knows it. He was correspondent of "The Times" in Rome and Vienna, was foreign editor of "The Times" during the last war, and edited "The Times" from 1919 to 1922. He is regarded as one of the greatest authorities on Central Europe, especially what used to be the Austrian Empire. Mr. Steed has an admirable broadcasting style — his matter is simple and his voice clear. Listeners should not miss the weekly talks on the war by this distinguished man. There are many others. All kinds of people are brought to the microphone by the BBC. The other day Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, spoke to the world. There is our own Nesbitt Sellars, who has a very pleasant and in- —

formative way with him of dealing with the situation of the moment in England. The National Broadcasting Service has two regular evenings for broadcasting these recorded talks — Thursday and Saturday between 7.30 p.m. and 8.0 p.m. The talks broadcast on Saturday evening are re-broadcast by the other main stations. In the news sessions on other evenings, wherever possible, other recorded talks are included in the programmes,