HC Deb 05 March 1968 vol 760 cc206-7
7. Mr. Goodhew

asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs whether he will now discontinue payments for the operation of Francistown Radio.

The Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. George Thomas)

This expenditure will be discontinued shortly. The Francistown relay station was never intended to be more than temporary. It fulfilled a valuable function in the period immediately following the illegal declaration of independence. However, new aerials now in commission at the Atlantic relay on Ascension Island will make a powerful additional shortwave signal available to listeners in Rhodesia, and with the advent of these more effective facilities for the transmission of B.B.C. programmes we plan to close down the Francistown station in the near future.

Mr. Goodhew

Will the hon. Gentleman accept that there are many who will think this is a white elephant that should have died long ago? Will he assure the House that British money will not be spent on programmes such as that issued from Francistown on 23rd November last year, which was thoroughly derogatory to judges who remained at their posts at the behest of the British Government?

Mr. Thomas

The hon. Member and the House may be assured that there will be broadcasts of greater strength reaching Rhodesia in the future than there have been in the past. This is a tightening of our propaganda rather than a weakening.

Mr. Alan Lee Williams

Does my hon. Friend agree that the suggestion in the Guardian newspaper that the Francistown transmitter should be used to jam signals in television and radio in Southern Rhodesia, would be counter-productive and it would be far better for the B.B.C. to concentrate on positive activity in getting the truth to this beleaguered country?

Mr. Thomas

I agree with my hon. Friend that we do not wish, as the illegal régime wishes, to censor broadcasts.

Mr. Mandling

The Minister will be surely aware that the Question by my hon. Friend the Member for St. Albans (Mr. Goodhew) is devoted not to the power of the transmission but to the content of the programme? Will he therefore answer that question?

Mr. Thomas

With pleasure, if the hon. Member will be good enough, as he had not been earlier, to tell me the programme to which he is referring. I am not expected to know every programme which went out on 23rd November last.

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