The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-22
By Jay Lawrence

The illusions of an idealistic and hero-worshipping American public were shattered to atomic bits last week when the press wires rever- berated with the startling news that His Majesty's British Broadcasting Company had stopped to unbeliev- ably mundane depths in its at- tempt to retrieve the errant Arabs from the clutches of the Fascist demon.
 Tie British Broadcasting Com pany. after making its noble aims widely known to the rest of the world, began to broadcast in foreign language into the Near East to win back those minimizing Arabs who had been weaned away from the motherly caresses of 10 Downing Street by the fiendishly concocted radio propaganda of the Italian Black-ShirtS.
 The BEG. programs were to be straight news. They would contain none of the diabolic lies which had been fed the unsuSpecting Moslems by those devilish knaves working under the satanic spell of Il Duce. They would be sublime Truth, as only His Majesty's government could present it.
 After widespread distribution of special radio sets which would re- ceive British programs and those alone, the broadcasts began.
 His Majesty's assorted broadcast ing f1unkeys sat back in their easy chairs, reached for their spot of tea coyly twiddled their manicured thumbs and peacefully rested them- selves, content in the thought that with the British Broadcasing Con- pany on the short-waveS, Truth at last would prevail.
 But suddenly alarming reports came pouring in over the cables Those unpredictable and eXasperat- ing Bedouins didn't want Truth They wanted Abdul.
 They were feveriShly tuning out the intellectual and moral nour- ishment so generously prepared fol them by the meSSianic B. B. C.. hastily wrapping their grimy robes around them, and beating helter- skelter path to those paradisica, places where Italian broadcasts were still being heard, over radios provided by the cunning Il Duce.
 There, while their tender hearts throbbed underneath the Arabian moon so romanticized in fiction and song, they heard Abdul Wahab their crooner, their vagabond lover at his melodious best. Abdul is known as the "Bing Crosby of the Near East" and when he warbles his song of love into the starry still ness, his listeners care neither fol Truth, nor His Majesty, nor His Majesty's Imperial Government nor His Majesty's British Broad casting Company.
 They care only for Abdul, ano Abdul is Mussolini's man.
 When news of this arresting case of lese majeste began to flutter into London's hallowed halls of state the BEG. f1unkeys, after a per- functory tuck at their Bond Street coat lapels, got busy and hit upon an immediate alternative. They would fight fire with fire, but in an objective, truthful way, of course Truthful news, come what might must still prevail.
 With that determination firmly set in mind, they put their man on the ether. He was Carroll Gibbons, one of the best baton-weavers in all the land, and he was assisted by His Boy Friends.
 strove nightly to impress upon the benighted Arabs the Illuminating and objective fact that Swing, yeah man, Is Here To Sway.
 And with that monumental scoop to its credit, the British Broadcast ing Company cleared a new, unsel- fish, humanitarian avenue to Truth.
 The American public, unaccus- toned to such unseemly goings-on by His Ma jesty's conservative mouthpiece, were awe-struck at such a concession of British dig nity that made 1t necessary to re- sort to the lowly jazz to get an idea across.
 British propagandists have long been looked upon as suave gentle- men of affairs, dropping all appear ances of sinister motive as effec- lively as they don their subtlety,