Trans-Tasman Radio Debate

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 21

Trans-Tasman Radio Debate

A RADIO debate between four Austra"lian and New Zealand speakers will be broadcast in a link of 1YD, 2, 3 and 4YC at 8.0 p.m. on Monday, February 27. An unusual feature of the debate is that it. will be conducted by radio telephone between the two countries, in much the same way as the Inter-Dominion Quiz contest held in 1948. The speakers for New Zealand are Mrs. Ann Newlands, of Timaru, a former New Zealand delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and J. A. Alcorn, the Immediate Past. Vice-President of the Wellington Junior Chamber of Commerce, and prize-winning orator. The subject is entitled "Is World Government Possible Within Ten Years?’’, and the debate, or forum, as it is more strictly called, will last for one hour of broadcasting time. Recently a similar forum was held between Australia and Britain, and proved very successful. The procedure to be followed in Trans-Tasman Forum is that the four speakers will speak for eight minutes each, after which there will be a period during which questions can be asked by the studio audiences in Wellington and Sydney. To conclude, each of the four speakers will be allowed two minutes in which to sum up, the person who

spoke ‘first in the debate being the last to sum up. The Australian speakers will be H. N. Rhodes, Chairman of the New | South Wales Section of the World | Movement for World Federation, and | George Caiger, Federal Secretary of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, The affirmative side will be taken by Mrs. Newlands and Mr. Rhodes, and the negative by Messrs. Caiger and Alcorn. The Chairman of the Forum will be Alan Carmichael of Sydney. The Chairman’s ,task will be to open the debate by outlining the subject and introducing the speakers. He will then ask the first speaker (probably Mr. Rhodes, for the affirmative) to open the debate. When "the four speakers have had their say, he will throw the subject open for discussion. He will first allow the Sydney audience to ask a question, and then ask the Wellington audience for a question. He will give the mame and address of each person asking a question, and so guide the questioning that it alternates between the two countries, until the period allowed for discussion is up. The radiotelephone circuit will of course be open at both ends so that everyone can hear both sides of all that goes on.