Evening star., 1936-08-16

this country and some day hope to get
it via the radio.
That is the message brought to the
United States by A. Viola Smith,
American trade commissioner in
Shanghai and the first woman to be
appointed to the foreign service of the
United States Department of Com
merce. Miss Smith, a veteran of 16
years in China, is advocating the in
stallation of a beam short-Wave sta
ton directed toward the Far East
which will carry American radio pro-
grams to the Orient.
Although the United States is in the
forefront of radio development, ac-
cording to Miss Smith, it is woefully
lacking in its international broadcast
ing. A dozen countries of Europe,
South America and the Antipodes
for several years have been broadcast
ing under regular schedule to Shang-
hai-and in English at that.
HERE on leave of absence, Miss
Smith said she believes that
Sino- American relations and Amer
lean foreign trade would be greatly
enhanced if a short-wave rebroad-
casting station were setup on the Pa
cific Coast for regularly scheduled
broadcaStS to China. Today, she en-
phaSized, other nations are taking ad-
vantage of the opportunity radio pre-
sents to the exclusion of the United
| States.
English, according to Miss Smith, Is
! the commercial language of China
Shanghai alone has a population of
$500 600 of whom 3. 500 are Americans.
while perhaps 100000 speak and
understand English. In all of China
there are 10000 Americans. The
degree to which Shanghai is AngL-
| cizel, she explained, is reflected in
! the fact that some 800 large Ameri-
can business concerns maintain
branches in that city.
Last May, Miss Smith recalled
the first two-way radio broadcast
between the United States and China
was successfully achieved as a cu-
max to the Foreign Trade Week ban
| quet held in Shanghai. This was
hailed as the prelude to regular broad
! cast programs directed to the Far
day there is no regular established in
ternational broadcast station west of
Chicago to put on these programs.
France, Germany, Holland, Great
Britain and Italy send special broad
casts to the Far East over powerful
short wave stations, While English
language programs are also heard
| daily from stations in Japan, Australia,
| Spain, Brazil and Russia. Supple
menting these are daily news broad
casts, colored, of course, to suit the
likes of the originating countries,
| from Australia, Germany, Japan. Eng
land, Russia, Spain, Rio de Janeiro
! and Geneva.
TT IS lamentable," Miss Smith
said, that programs from the
/ United States are seldom heard.
Pittsburgh, Schenectady and Bound
Brook are sometimes picked up during
/ Spring and Fall seasons when ex-
/ tremely favorable weather conditions
prevail. bue when such reception is
received Shanghai gets it on the
last lap after the programs have gone
| half around the world The need
for special directional beam broad
cast from the United States to the
Far East is paramount and one which
should be given every consideration
1t would be an excellent stimulus not
alone in the promotion of American
trade generally but in the creation
of greater understanding of Ameri-
can-C Chinese relationship
Radio listeners in China would
welcome the institution of such
broadcast service. While no statis-
tics are available, reliable sources
estimated that there are between
100000 and 100000 radio sets in
China at the present time. The
modern educated and trained Chinese
is keen radio fan, while an ever in
creasing group of English-speaking
Chinese as well as the large colony
of foreigners constitutes radio pub
lie we'll worth cultivating."