DOCILE SORT GETS "GOOD AND MAD"

Radio Record, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 21 August 1939, Page 28

DOCILE SORT GETS "GOOD AND MAD"

"Record’s" Article About Refugees ... The Desire For More Continental Films ... ‘This Stupid Bondage To The Signature Tune"

I am a docile sort, but your article about refueecs taking New Zealanders’ jobs made me good and mad, and for several reasons. Not that I object.to the accusation that we are lazy, because we are lazy-morally, mentally and physically. What I object to is just the plain faet that they are taking our jobs. They are taking them not so much because they are inmecusely superior to New Zealanders, but just because they scem to have the faculty of worming themselves into the best positions. , Maybe a sort of false sympathy has a lot to do with it. The poor fellow is a refugee. Let us help him, even to the extent of making some New Zealander do without. i: NZEDDER (Auckland): I happen to know of a ‘department of the New Zeadand Government in which the work is done mostly by highly-trained New Zealand University men. Not many are employed there, and yet four refugees have managed to find jobs. This means that four youngs New Zealanders, well qualified to hold down the jobs, are out of work.

Help deserving refugees certainly. But we shouldn‘’t make fools of ourselyes in the process. Continental Film Fan (Wellington): I notice through the ‘‘Reeord’’ film reviews that a number of Continental films are out in New Zealand and have already been shown privately. But dhey have not reached the theatres yet. That is to say, except for "Legend of Prague," which I saw in Wellington many months ago. What is the matter? Are the exhibitors afraid that Continental films are not box office? Maybe they are not, according to Hollywood standards, but at the same time they are of such a different and refreshing character that they would command an immediate following. I would suggest to the exhibitors that if only they would have the courage to venture one or two Continental films they would be

handsomely repaid for their enterprise, Theme Songs Enough of a Good Thing (Wellington): When will our stations, both the Y and the Z chains, kick themselves free of this stupid bondage to the signature tune? It is boring beyond endurance to have to sit through every line and scratch of the tunes and songs that are used for this purpose in New Zealand. Any tune becomes nothing better than a dirge if you are condemned to hear it played every day and

right through from beginning to end. "Sing As We Go" (for the 2YD session) is becoming pretty hackneyed and dismal, but it is princely compared with the long-drawn-out tunes at both ends of Uncle Scrim’s session. Plenty of peopie who want to hear this session get bored stiff before the signature song, "Wan in the Street" is put to bed; and they turn off the moment "The Stranger of Galilee" begins, simply because of its inordinate length. Surely our heads can work up a little imagination, make the thing shorter and less frequent, and, if possible, make a change now and again. James Raglan Napier Family | (Napier): We would be so glad if you could publish in your interesting paper a photograph and, if possible, the life story of that splendid radio actor and producer, James Raglan. We have been thrilled with his wonderful acting in the radio serials, "Khyber," "Soldiers of Fortune," "Singapore Spy,’ "Night Nurse, "Ixploits of the Black Moth," and "Tales of the Silver Greyhound." We thoroughly enjoy-

ed all of these excellent productions, and would very much like to hear something about this actor. [Unfortunately James Raglan is in England at the present time, and no photograph is availableEd.] Germany Miss Annie H, Barnett (Dunedin): Last week my attention was drawn to an article in your issue of July 10 regarding my message from Berlin to friends in Dunedin. I wish to say that two statements therein are contrary to fact. I neither "got mike fright" nor did the German announcers suggest my statements. I wrote out my script, and the one and only comment on it was one word "Fine!" It is a libel on these cultured an-nouncers-men of splendid ideals -to publish that they would suggest statements sent out by foreign visitors to their studio. 1 would like to say to you that ° 1 consider that the campaign of other untruths in the British Press against Germany is simply disgraceful, and evidently launched for the purpose of inducing a war. Has our own nation received a special mandate from the Almighty to be the dictator over all nations, for this is apparently the position it has assumed for itself (apparently in its aim to encircle Germany). In common with every Britisher and American I met on my Continentai tour of four months, I jfound Germany the most friendly "of all countries visited, just as I did in 1906 and again in 1930. For the last 33 years I have recognised Germany as the greatest peace-loving nation in the world--an avalanche of talk will never make facts. If our own nation would invest in a few more spades and follow Germany’s example by putting a spade instead of a gun in the hands of half its army, it would show greater wisdom than in this wicked outlay for war. Britain’s poverty and dirt might then be lessened, and humanity uplifted instead of destroyed.

The Chinese Ex-China (Christchurch): So New Zealand has two Chinese papers, has it? Good for the Chinese. I was glad to note the sympathetic colours J. Gifford Male used to paint our yellow countrymen in. The Chinese are oft-maligned people. Many New Zealanders seem to imagine they are a sly lot, not to pe trusted in trading and business. 1 have had persona! experience of them, and I have always found just the opposite. They are honest to the core, and pay up better than many Europeans 1 know. And have you ever noticed that their fruit shops are always spotlessly clean? A lot more than can be said for some shops kept by white folk. Things To Come J.F.W. (Hamilton): I notice a number of old films are being revived lately, including "Hell’s Angels" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." To my way of thinking there is one film above all others which would do a tremendous amount of good in these troubled times, I refer to H, G. Wells’s "Things to Come." I think it must be four

years at least since it was shown in New Zealand, but it is as vivid in my mind as ‘if I saw it yesterday. Not only was it almost pra phetic in the message it had to give, but it was superbly acted

and directed, and | am _ sure would stand comparison with many pictures produced in the past year. Highlights I remember are Ray« mond Massey’s acting and the grim, haunting music of HErnest Bliss-a score written especially for the film, I believe. I am one of those who regard

H. G. Wells as a minor prophet, though it looks as if we may anticipate by about a year his belief that general war will break out on Christmas Eve of’ 1940. NBS Talks Tired (Auckland): I quite agree with your recent remarks about NBS talks, and very much with the suggestion that enterprising newspaper men should be appointed to contact distinguished strangers passing through Auckland, Every Matson finer regularly brings interesting film, radio and stage celebrities to these shores, and surely some of them could be roped in. I see that the "Record" regularly contacts the Monterey and the Mariposa, and always finds someone worth while. The NBS should do the same.