The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-22
Wooing Sheiks of Aruby British Influence on Our Radio, Movies Is Be- coming More Noticeable as Propa-
 ganda Program Increases.
NEWSDOM

and overriding their gullible dupes on these shores with the sheer weight of their impressiveness. British propagandistS have custom arily been regarded as profound in- tellectuals, statesmen, journalists, or drooping-lidded professors.
 His Majesty's propaganda network embraces all of those types, of course, and in numbers that cause any American to shudder. But the network covers a much wider range. For just as 10 Downing Street makes full use of Carroll Gibbons and His jazz-mad Boy Friends to win the uncouth Arabs to the En- pire's paunchy bosom, so also does it encourage the use of radio, mo- tion pictures and every other en- tertainment device to keep her dear, adopted children in the Uni ted States close to her in spirit.
 The National Broadcasting Con- pany and the Columbia Broadcast ing System, this country's two ma jor radio networks, might well be directed from London as an off, shoot of the BEG, so furiously do they carry the torch for His Maj esty's quaking Empire.
 Their ideas are British ideas, pounded into the suffering ear of the average American radio-owner so necessarily that he can hardly be blamed after short time for standing and waiting kisses into the air each time the plaintiff peals of God Save The King" are putfed into the ether.
 They vie with each other to do service to the Crown whenever any Englishman owning his own ooth- brush and fairly moth-free full dress suit comes roaming to these shores.
 Every time King George dedicates a new boot-black stand or delivers one of his rare addresses to his Empire, it is certain that both ra- dio networks will trail along with the rest of the Dominions and duti- fully present him for his American subjects in the United States.
 Every time an international issue arises which besets the Crown, it is almost miraculous the way the ma iority of the radio news commen- tators, with few definite and for tunate exceptions, rally to Britains cause.
 But that is hardly all. To the sensitive radio listener it appears that every time Britannia opens a skating rink, doughnut shop, or a new keg of ale, the incident must be duly recorded for radio listeners herehere. Then there is Big Ben, of course, the seemingly daily ringing of which has led one cynic to report that he has discarded as useless all the clocks in his home and is now successfully telling time by Big Ben of London, as tolled to him by radio.
 Bad as radio is, the motion pie lures are an even greater medium for spreading English propaganda to the American public.
 Because Hollywood made produc- tionS under present conditions must be shown abroad in order to be profitable, a large number of the films now being made on the West Coast have themes, characters and situations designed to meet with a favorable reception in the British Empire.
 Many of these pictures treat in glamorouS manner the stirring aS- poets of Britain's past, minimizing the unsavory aspects, and are shown widely throughout the Uni- t6 l States. Their propaganda ef- feet is immeasurable.
 British actors and actresses over run the screen, portrayed in their most charming. drawing-room man. ners. Because the pictures in which they appear are shipped for con- sumption in England, they are in- variably given the most favorable roles. Americans are alone depicted as ignorant louts whenever the script calls for lout.
 Such a motion picture contrast between the British and the Amer jeans becomes evident even to the gum chewing lovers in the back rows. It may account for the gen. eral belief here that the Americans place in that scheme of things is down on his knees, Servilely scrap ing the noble Britain'S boots.
 The newsreels also do their bit in getting the idea across for John