Evening star., 1936-06-14
BY MARTIN CODEL.

ON the evident theory that export
trade and diplomatic influence
follow the wireless word. the greatest
propaganda campaign in world his
tory is gaining such rapid momentum
over the International radio wave
lengths that the American State De-
partment and the British foreign Of
flee are becoming deeply concerned
What to do about radio propaganda,
usually disguised in the form of news,
promises to become one of the most
vital diplomatic issues between the
dictator and the democratic nations
in the near future.
Official American concern Is largely
centered upon Central and South
America, where Germany not only is
straining every effort to gain a DOM
inant trade foothold. but is bulwarking
its activities by a remarkable system
of directive short-Wave broadcastS
featuring news interlarded with music
that. in final analysis, rivals any
thing the commercial broadcasters of
the United States are carrying in the
way of high-pressure advertising.
The British are fearful of what
short-wave broadcasts from Italy are
doing toward fomenting upriSings in
Palestine, India and Egypt. Open
charges already have been made by
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that
anti-British propaganda in the native
language of the countries of intended
destination is being broadcast out of
Italy, allegedly accounting to some de-
gree for the current Arab revolt in
Palestine.
Soviet Propaganda Broadcast.
Russia, of course, never has made
any bones about its powerful propa-
ganda broadcasts in foreign languages,
for listening to which NaZi Germany
has sent some citizens to eoncentra-
ton camps, and the japanese are cur
rently reported to be laying their cTn
plans for worldwide broadcasting
with the plain intention of bolste1lng
Japan's export trade and heightening
her world prestige.
The fact that the broadcasts are
directional and in the language of the
countries toward which they are
aimed, with the dictator countries
of late assuming more and more wave
lengths for the purpose, lends to the
conclusion that war in the ether"
Is one of the gravest problems facing
the worlds diplomats. The fact that,
as in the case of at least one Central
American country which has been Wis
tied by this writer, the short wave
broadcasts from abroad are increas-
ingly blotting out the short-wa
broadcasts from the United States
upon which many American residents
there depend for their news, indicates
that unless something is done soon
the worlds wireless waves will be dom
inantly foreign and may virtually
exclude Americas foreign relays
even to the rest of the countries on
two American continents
The League of Nations has called
O meeting in Geneva next September
for a world agreement to promote
peace by radio by prohibiting broad
casts from one country which might
tend to incite people in other coun-
tries to violence, aiming directly at
such broa 2casts as those from the
Munich station several years ago,
which led to the Nazi putsch in Aus
tria, in which Chancellor Dollfuss was
aSsassinated.
HulPs Proposal Cited.
On the part Of the United States,
the State Department has before it
Secretary Hull's proposal to the Pam
American Conference at Montevideo
several years ago for powerful short
wave station in Washington from
which news and entertainment might
be broadcast on a regular scale to
Latin America. BY executive order
President Roosevelt has set aside five
short waves for this purpose, but the
Government, loath to enter a field
that in this country is left entirely
to private enterprise, has not yet de-
cided how to use them. In the mean
time the Federal radio authorities
have been advised that unless this
country puts those waves to use soon,
the insistent demands for more wave
lengths from other countries may lead
to their usurpation any day.
The whole trend toward interna-
tional aggrandizement via radio may
be laid at the doorstep Of Britain,