§ 38. Dr. Kingasked the Postmaster-General whether he will initiate a conference at international level to deal with the problem of bad reception of broadcasts on the medium wave-band.
§ Mr. BevinsThe International Radio Conference now being held at Geneva will discuss the advisability of calling an early European broadcasting conference to review long- and medium-wave allocations. It may be found better to defer this until very high frequency sound broadcasting—which seems to be the answer to bad reception on medium waves—has developed sufficiently in Europe to make a review of the situation realistic and worth while.
§ Dr. KingWhilst congratulating the Minister on all that his Department has done in the provision of high quality V.H.F. reception of British programmes in this country, may I ask whether he is aware that one of the outstanding assets of radio is as a channel of international communication and the reception of foreign broadcasts? In recent years that has become practically impossible. Does not the right hon. Gentleman think that it is bad that radio, which was once international, is now becoming almost exclusively national? Will he take this up as a matter of very grave importance?
§ Mr. BevinsYes. I will take note of what the hon. Gentleman says and have discussions about it.