FAR-FLUNG FORUM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 650, 14 December 1951, Page 18

FAR-FLUNG FORUM

AT one o'clock on the morning of No- *" vember 15, technicians at,2YA were cutting a recording. Two of the men whose voices were passing through the ‘recorder were sitting in a studio next door; the other three were in the BBC’s London studios, The programme they ‘were working on was an_ edition of ‘London Forum, probably the most farHie edition the BBC had ever made. London Forum began simply enough. ‘It was a half-hour discussion programme Revadicent on the Home Service. Then someone had the idea of using radiotelephone and having two members of the panel in some other part of the world, while the other two and the chairman stayed in London. Programmes were made with Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, the U.S. and Singapore, with discussion in each case centering round ‘contemporary problems and relationships 'between the two countries. The subject chosen for the New Zealand programme was a little vague, but it left plenty of room for discussion. It | was, "Are the Present Trade and Migratien Policies of the U.K. and N.Z, in the Best Interests of Both Countries?" The speakers at the New Zealand end were Horace Belshaw, Professor of Economics at Victoria University College, and D. L. M. Martin, Federated Farmers’ research officer, On the other side of the globe they were Graham Hutton, economist and writer, and the New Zealand-born Sir Henry Turner,

until recently Controller of Meat and Livestock in the Ministry of Food. The chairman-also in England-was Edgar Lustgarten. The discussion touched on points like bulk purchase, and New Zealand's need for immigrants of a type that England cannot spare. Mainly, though, the discussion dealt with the economies of the two countries, and their relation to each other. As we went to. press, the programme was scheduled to be heard from 2YA in the present week, from 3YA at 8.28 p.m. on Monday, December 17, and from 1YA and 4YA at 8.30 pm. gn the same evening. nel