"THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 62, 30 August 1940, Page 41

"THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND"

£50 In Prizes For Radio Plays In CBS Contest

SSPNHERE’LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND " is the song hit of to-day. There has been an England for centuries, and there will be one for ages to come-in spite of Hitler. England has been the powerful shield under which many small nations have lived, and gained their independence, and she is the home of that cherished freedom which we do not stop to appreciate or even consider, until someone tries to take it from us. We all realise that this heritage of freedom has been gradually built up by the patient labours of successive generations. It is with the intention of strengthening the knowledge of listeners of the nature of our heritage that the Commercial Broadcasting Service has issued a challenge to all New Zealanders. The challenge takes the form of a contest for a radio play to be entitled " There'll Always Be An England," and prizes amounting to £50 will be awarded to the best entries. The contest is open to all without restrictions. The play may be one-quarter, one-half, or one hour in length. On the other hand, any writer wishing to do so may enter episodes for a serial -story. In the latter case, entries will be restricted to 13 episodes, each of 13 minutes’ duration, The first prize will be 25 guineas, the second 10 guineas, the third guineas; and there will be ten consolation prizes of one guinea each. Rich Field of History The competition is for some form of dramatic presentation based on the theme " There'll Always Be An England." This does not mean that the entries must necessarily relate to modern history or the present war. There is a rich field of history for writers to work on, for the history of Britain as a leader in world affairs begins back in the reign of Elizabeth. It is also generations since London awoke to find herself the maritime centre of a suddenly expanded globe. The Realm of Politics Another field is that of politics. In the sphere of politics Britain is famous as the Mother of Parliaments, In answer to the instincts and temperament of her people she evolved in the course of centuries a system which reconciled three things that other nations have found incompatible — executive efficiency, popular control, and personal freedom. In the Nineteenth Century the same Par liamentary institutions, while undergoing democratic transformation, were put to the

Severe test of coping with the new. and bewildering conditions of social life created by the Industrial Revolution, Whatever, then, be a playwright’s twist or choice of subject, and in whatever direction his interest in the British present or past’ may be-whether it be in material progress, colonial expansion, the growth of political institutions, or pure intellect and letters-it is the essential freedom and strength of the British people which stands out, Command of the Sea The universality of the Englishnian’s experience and outlook-quite as marked as his in-sularity-is partly due to his command of the sea, which has, for more than three centuries past, carried him as an explorer, trader, and colonist, to every shore in the two hemispheres. Here is ample scope for the writerClive, Rhodes, Captain Cook, Drake, Hawkins, all could be featured in adventurous plays.

The era of individual enterprise and expanding genius is associated with Drake and Raleigh, Shakespeare and Bacon, and was the outcome of 200 years of social disruption and rebirth: the emancipation of the villeins; the growth of "London; the rise, of educated and active-minded middle classes; the spread of cloth manufacture; the unifying effect of the Common Law; the adoption of the English language by the educated classes; the invention of cannon; the use of the printing press; and the discovery of ocean trade routes-all of which helped to bring about the strength and freedom of England, There is sufficient material in any one of these themes for a play. Great Individuals The glory of England and her rise to power may be judged by her individual men, by thevachievement of her free and vigorous population. The glory of the 18th Century of Britain lay in the genius of her. individuals

acting freely, in a free community — Marlborough,- Swift, Bishop Butler, and Berkeley; Wesley, Clive, Warren Hastings, the Pitts, Captain Cook, Dr, Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, Adam Smith, James Watt, Burns, and many others, Even while wars were raging, England's creative spirit was sheltered behind her fleet. There emerged such men as Nelson, and Wellington; Fox and Pitt; Castlereagh and Canning: but also during this era Wordsworth and Coleridge, Scott and Byron, Shelley and Keats, Turner and Constable, gave to the world unforgettable beauty in art and poetry. English Literature English literature is, in beauty, range «iu variety, inferior to that of no other nation in the world. Chaucer and Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Bridges-ean any people since the Greeks produce.a bevy of poets equal to these? In. the realm of the Novel, Great Britain ranks. indisputably high. Science, theoretical and applied, is'admittedly international; ‘scientific progress is co-operative rather than competitive, yet Newton and Darwin may. stand beside Archimedes and Galileo as men who have revolutionised the outlook of man upon his -world; . Watt: and Stevenson wrought a change in the conditions of life comparable with that effected by the genius of Edison and Marconi. Her Supreme Achievement In all but one sphere of human progress and ingenuity England has her rivals. But in one sphere she is without peer. Her supreme achievement, her most characteristic contribation to the sum of human happiness, lies in the sphere of politics. No other nation in ‘history has excelled or equalled her in the art of Government, in promoting the wellbeing and happiness of the many people committed’ to her charge. With the strength of granite the British Constitution combines the flexibility of rubber; it can. resist shocks; it can also absorb them. Parliamentary Monarchy was a great experiment. when. first tried in the insular State. That the system could ever be adapted to a World-Empire is an idea which would have staggered the imagination of the Pyms and the Walpoles, or even the Pitts and the Peels, That it has been so adapted, has resisted grave shocks, has survived a grave crisis, is conclusive testimony to the political genius of the British race. The Commercial Broadcasting Service hopes that there will be many hundreds of entries for this radio play-writing contest, since it will not only foster. the spirit of patriotism but will also stimulate New Zealand radio production by: encouraging writers of radio plays