THEY SCORCHED THE AIR TOO, IN SINGAPORE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 161, 24 July 1942, Page 10

THEY SCORCHED THE AIR TOO, IN SINGAPORE

NOT only the earth but the air itself was scorched at Singapore before the island surrendered to the Japanese, according to Giles Playfair, a member of the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation, who was in Auckland recently. And so effectively did the MBC staff carry out the work of demolishing plant and equipment that the Japanese have not yet succeeded in transmitting a single broadcast from Singapore Island.

(5%: PLAYFAIR, who is a son of Sir Nigel Playfair, is himself an actor, as well as an Oxford graduate in law and a BBC man, and joined the staff of the MBC as supervisor of talks and "live" productions. He had gone through the great blitz of London in 1940-41, and war travelled with him when he went east.

last-the day Japan declared war-until February 11, three days before the

capitulation of the island. He saw, and participated in, the mushroom growth of the MBC under the energetic direction of its chairman, Eric Davis, and he is emphatic that, but for Davis’s courage and energy, and resource, few of the staff would be free men to-day. But Playfair’s story is not simply one of escape from the enemy, " As far as I know, "he told The Listener, " The MBC has not been officially wound up. It still has ‘administrative officials, technical staff and language experts." And when the United Nations take the offensive against the Japanese in south-east Asia again, radio (and for him that means MBC) must be in the forefront of the battle. He has been associated with broadcasting for seven years now, having begun in Manchester as an outside contributor to North Regional in 1935, He joined the BBC organisation later and naturally specialised first in acting, going from that to programme writing, particularly of musical feature programmes. But between law at Oxford and programme work for the BBC he

had sandwiched three years of particularly valuable training as a propagandist in the Public Relations Office of Imperial Chemical Industries, where public relations are of international dimensions. There he worked under Sidney Rogerson, whose Propaganda in the Next War was sensationally received on both sides of the Atlantic, Rogerson he regards as one of the finest propagandists in Britain, and at the same time as one of the most "wasted" men in the present war. So far as he knows, Rogerson is still conducting public relations for ICI whereas, in Playfair’s opinion, he should have been in the Ministry of Information long ago. When Giles Playfair speaks of the MBC organisation, one gathers that he would not willingly see it wound up. His personal view is that to spread the gospel of the United Nations, decentralisation of the propaganda organisation is essential and while it lasted the MBC was a shining example of what could be achieved at short notice by such decentralisation. After leaving Singapore, Playfair was in Java for a short time, and from there went to Australia, where he spent some months. While there he produced The Importance of Being Earnest for Whitehall Productions at the Minerva Theatre, and acted in it.

While his stay in New Zealarid was brief, 1YA was able to bring him to the microphone. His talk was, of course, arranged at too short notice to be included in the published programmes, but for those listeners who were unlucky enough to miss it here are some extracts from one of the best topical broadcasts 1YA has been able to put over: Radio is a Weapon The BBC survived the blitz (of 194041)’ without a breakdown in any of its services. This was an essential achievement. For radio is one of the weapons with which modern war is waged, and it’s capable of playing an important, though not so obvious, a part in the winning of the war as the tank and the aeroplane. A nation just can’t afford to allow its broadcasting station to be cowed or blasted into silence by bombs, If it does, it suffers a major defeat, In an emergency, radio is the main prop of morale, By the mere fact of keeping its ordinary programmes on the air, it preserves an atmosphere of normality which is the surest antidote ‘to panic, (Continued on next page)

But The MBC Goes Marching On!

(Continued from previous page) and it is the sole provider of entertainment for people who are in urgent need of diversion but who are for obvious reasons tied to their homes and no longer able to visit the theatre or cinema. It is the main fount of reliable news and information. And it is the safest and quickest channel through which the authorities can issue essential instructions. BBC to MBC When the war in the Pacific broke out, the MBC had to adapt itself to blitz conditions, and, whatever the difficulties, it had to fulfil all those functions which the BBC had carried out in London. In one way the task was easier. The Japanese never raided Singapore with the same ferocity and consistency as the Germans raided Britain, and I can’t remember a single night when it was impossible to have at least a few hours of peaceful sleep or a day when there were not periods of calm — except towards the very end. On the other hand, we had nothing in the way of underground or even soundproof studids. Our equipment was extremely primitive, in fact.i 4

The Show Went On My job was to look after talks and all "live" productions. In putting on plays I had the assistance of a very distinguished New Zealander, Miss Marie Ney, who ranks now among the first ten of London’s actresses. I shall never forget the example of courage and hard work which she set during those anxious and dangerous weeks. I well remember one occasion when she was portraying the part of Queen Elizabeth in a little one-act play which we had adapted for radio. The guns were booming, and the studio was literally being shaken by explosions. But Marie Ney remained, imperturbably, Elizabeth, the great English queen whose nerve was proof against the machinations of any foreign foe, and who had " the heart and stomach of a King." Devotion of Asiatics When I first arrived in Singapore, I heard a good deal of rather dismal speculation about how the Asiatics

would stand up to bad air raids. Well, from my experience of them in the MBC, I’ve no doubt at all in my mind that they behaved every bit as selflessly and gallantly as their fellow members of the British Empire in London and other blitzed towns of Britain. Not one of them was ever known to desert his post in an emergency. And when I say this I am thinking not only of the top men-pro-gramme organisers and control engineers -but of the humblest members of the staff. Radio Must be the Vanguard To-day the members of the MBC staff are scattered all over the world. Some aré prisoners, some, I fear, may have lest their lives, some are free in Australia, and in India, and some have returned to England, but I like to think, indeed I know, that the functions of the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation are not over; and that the pioneer work which Eric Davis undertook was not done in vain. One day, sooner perhaps than most people expect, the Allied Nations must launch an offensive to recapture the territories wrested from them by the Japanese. And when they do so, the Malayan Broadcasting Corporation will be needed. For in modern warfare, I am convinced, a well-equipped radio organisation must be both the vanguard and the rearguard of an invading army.