Propaganda Limits

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 5

Propaganda Limits

T is all to the good if the continuing conferences and discussions on aid to Britain are the result of pressure by people eager to help. No such campaign can be directed without staff discussions and decisions, and committees are not merely useful but necessaty in rallying local forces. But there is a limit to the amount of propaganda people will accept in print and on the air. Neither the newspapers nor the broadcast- | ing stations should bé asked to report every step taken in this campaign by every member of every committee, nor should the public be asked to read or listen to most of it. The moment a publicity story loses its news interest it loses its value as publicity and belongs to the waste-paper basket; every attempt to keep it alive is the beginning of a public nuisance, ‘and before long becomes a public offence. We do not help Britain by shouting out every day that we are helping Britain, or should or must or will help her. We help by doing the things she has asked us to do-sending her more of the things she has asked fer and asking for less of the things she finds it difficult to supply. We all know what we have to do, and the danger in talking too much about it is that talking sooner or later takes the place of action. We say talking too much about it-passing too many resolutions, issuing too many directives, writing too many reports, making too many exhortations and complaints. A dozen men perhaps in the: whole Dominion require to be almost constantly in, conference, but the rest of us should be working and not talking, planning and not listening. We are far more likely to be getting on with the job if our goodwill is taken for granted and our tempers are not ruffled by unnecessary advice.