§ 25. Captain Cobbasked the Minister of Information whether he will endeavour to facilitate the following by Members of the main lines of our overseas broadcasts by regularly placing in the Library samples, synopses and directives?
§ Mr. BrackenDuring every month the B.B.C. transmit thousands of overseas broadcasts. If they were to attempt the labour of selecting samples or making synopses of these broadcasts they would have to make considerable additions to their staff. May I remind my hon. and gallant Friend that Members of this House have often suggested to me that the staff of the B.B.C. should be reduced? And so if I were to attempt to make the increase suggested by my hon. and gallant Friend I doubt if I should obtain the approval of the House.
§ 28. Mr. Pickthornasked the Minister of Information whether, before authorising the repeated exposition of the Beveridge Report on overseas broadcast programmes, he considered the risk of giving the impression of excessive preoccupation with our own standards of comfort and also the disadvantage to our cause of any risk we should be thought more interested in social reform than in questions of strategy and frontiers?
§ Mr. BrackenYes, Sir. But as continual publicity was given at the same 1674 time to the strategic results of the Allied landings in North Africa and to General Montgomery's triumphal progress along the shores of Libya, the hypothetical risks which my hon. Friend has in mind did not arise.
§ Mr. GallacherIs the questioner in favour of discussing the second front instead of the Beveridge Report?
§ Mr. DribergIs it not misleading to suggest that a minimum standard of subsistence is equivalent to a standard of comfort?
§ Mr. BrackenIt is not for me to umpire between two hon. Gentlemen.