§ 69. Mr. Swinglerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if, as part of his campaign to improve the information services abroad, he will initiate discussions with representatives of the United States and Soviet Governments to try to secure a better showing in the cinema circuits of their countries of films about the British way of life.
§ Mr. Ian HarveyThe United States Government impose no special restrictions on the exhibition of British feature and documentary films in the United States. The scale of their distribution is governed by public taste and commercial factors and there would be no point in discussing the subject with the United States Government.
The problem in the Soviet Union is that the commercial terms so far offered by Soviet importers have been quite inadequate. This subject has however been touched on in a recent exchange of views between Her Majesty's Ambassador at 79W Moscow and the Soviet Minister of Culture and I hope that it may be possible in due course to persuade the Soviet authorities to reconsider their position.