Voices Of The Famous

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 39

Voices Of The Famous

OUND recording and films provide a new and almost perfect medium for passing on the history of our times to posterity, and the BBC, fully aware of the necessity. for organisation in this direction, has inaugurated an historical library of the spoken word. Already there are many thousands of valuable records of the past in the possession of the BBC and among these are such momentous speeches as were made by Lord Lee of Fareham, speaking on the problems of disarmament in 1909; H. H. Asquith discussing the Burget of the same year, when jncome tax soared to the unprecedented figure of 1/2 in the pound; Walter Long on Irish Home Rule and an eye-witness ac--eount of the sinking of the Titanic. Such records as these, made with the urgent address of actuality, will provide first-hand accounts of history. wn The International Broadcasting Union recently approved of a scheme for the international exchange of historical records, and it should be possible in the future to borrow from other countries such_ recordings which it has not been possible for the BBC to make. ,