§ Mr. Churchillasked the Lord Privy Seal what is the daily average of British Broadcasting Corporation external service vernacular broadcast (a) to the peoples of occupied Afghanistan and (b) in Russian to the occupying forces; and whether Her Majesty's Government are taking steps to increase these transmissions.
§ Mr. Humphrey AtkinsThe BBC is currently broadcasting 1¾ hours a day in Farsi and 15 minutes a day in Pashto. It is unlikely that the BBC's broadcasts in Russian—currently an average of about 6½ hours daily—would he audible to the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
We have no plans to increase the transmissions to Afghanistan at this stage. The Pashto service was started in August.