22,000 In Two Days

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 21, 4 December 1931, Page 4

22,000 In Two Days

A Raid on Pirates ECGENTLY the B.B.C. announced that it intended starting a detinite drive to force registration of thousands of radio pirates, who it was believed were operating in London and throughout the United Kingdom. Special vans were to be equipped and fitted out with the very latest scientifie means of detecting receivers. A period of warning was given, and it was announced that, after the expiry of that term of grace, anyone found operating a receiving set without a license would be prosecuted "regardless." The mere announcement of this campaign precipitated a rush to register. But that rush was as nothing to the rush that started when the campaign was actually put into force. According to the "Sunday Times," in the first two days of the campaign 22,000 new wireless licenses were taken out in London alone. ‘These were in addition to renewals of existing licenses. So great was the demand for licenses that many district post offices ran short of them, and the. staff of Somerset House, which provides the

printed forms, was kept hard at work fulfilling requirements. What would be the result of a similar campaign in Wellington, Auckland, or any of the principal New Zealand towns? |