Evening star., 1947-05-13

81
propaganda from some other source,
lbranding the United States as i'm.
lperialistic, reactionary and miHtar-
listic.
| Under questioning by Representa-
tive Lodge, Republican, Of Massa-
chusetts, Mr.. Acleson insisted that
the information program woulc
serve the best purpose In the long
run BY presenting the truth about
America effectively and not at
tempting to select only favorable
news. f
Representative Judd. Republican
LOT Minnesota asked If private enter
prise could not carry on the infor-
Imation program better and cheap
Ier'r than the Government
Mr.. Acheson replied that broad
casting companies were agreed that
the Voice Of America" broadcasts
could not be carried on without Gov
|ernment financial help, and that
the State Department should con-
tinue the program until some ar
rangement can be worked out for
turning it over to some sort of pri-
vate industry governmental associa-
ton.
He pointed out that the State
Department is sponsoring another
bill in Congress to create aafounda-
ton, directed largely by private citi-
zens, to take over the international
broadcasting eventually. He said it
would take some time, however, to
|get agreement on this program and
that in the meantime continued
Government operation is necessary
to prevent loss of the radio fire.
quencies used.
Mr.. Judd said he favored "im-
mediate action to keep the program
going" but thought it should be
made clear that permanent Govern
Iment operation of international
broadcasts was not intended.
Greek Period Added.
Meanwhile, the State Department
added a Greek language period, as
Of today, to its list of short wave
broadcasts for listeners abroad.
And Assistant Secretary of State
William Benton told reporters that
if Congress fails to reverse the
Taber committee IT assume that the
climate at that time would be such
that it would better for me to
get the hell out of here"
He is in charge of the cultural
relations setup.
In addition to supplying $219,-
128, ,058 for the State Department
for the fiscal year starting July /,
the appropriations bill called up in
the House carries $108, 1886 500 for
the Justice Department, $191 ,057 900
for the Commerce Department and
Sic, ,446, ,450 for the Federal judiciary.
The $535, 5,028, 8,008 aggregate is
$163 ,593, Sis below the Presidents
budget requests. The major reduc-
tions were made in State and Com
merce Department funds.
The State Department broadcasts.
including the new one in Greek, will
continue at least for the rest of the
current year, which ends June 80.
The department has deferred max
ing definite plans beyond that date
until Congress decides whether to
restore the cultural relations fund.
Tentative plans, however, call for
Turkey to be restored to the broad
cast schedule if the fund goes
through. Turkey and Greece are
due to share in $400, 900 900 Ameri-
can aid program designed to stem
communistic encroachment.
Secretary Marshall, Senator Van
denberg, Republican, of Michigan,
and Mr.. Benton arranged to speak
on the initial 15-minute program
from New York to Greece at $780,
pm. with their addresses trans
lated from English.
Previous Greek Language broad
casts, started by the Office of War
Information in war time, were dis
continued when the State Depart
ment fell heir to owl after V-Jl
Day. The number of broadcast
foreign languages dropped then
from AZ to- "a. Russian was added
in February.