THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 28, 1940
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE!
JAPAN'S RISK.
The dangers to which
he industry and the eco- omy of Japan may be ex-
war broke out a year ago, "we had in Britain the best organised machine for film propaganda In the world. Wo had what even Dr. Goebbels hadn't; a' group of specialists; some of them: with ten years' experience, skilled In the use of the most lasting of alt propaganda weapons the film.
Some h a d 'studied film, pro-..
paganda in
and
America, France Foreign Germany. said
experts
that their work was of
osed as a result of her high quality.
"The documen-.
tary film people"
ew alliance with the Axis Towers illustrate the risks were ready to he Japanese militarists work
.. pro-
overtime... night and day re prepared to run in at the job of ursuit of their grandiose paganda.
foreign
lans of conquest. After] hree years of exhausting
ar with
China, Japan
as not only failed to reap empensating benefits for er heavily-laden indus- ies, but finds it necessary exert a greater military Hort than ever. The
rain of the "incident" as told most heavily upon ne civilian
NOBODY ORDERED FILMS
To-day, a year later, we look It has made films of British back on twelve months practically bloodstock and Thames shipping populationsted. Some of our best techni-and has now films being made ad the foreign trade of cians are either foot-slogging in about Lloyd's and Art in Industry. he country,
the Army, or awaiting their call- But if it is suggested that these and there'
up, making a few short films. To are hardly the films that Ameri- fe limits, to what either all intents, the knowledge and ex- cans or Argentinians or Japanese
n stand.
perience we had accumulated over or Siamese expect to see of the ten years have scarcely been used in the national interest. Yet we
By Paul Rotha
+
not let the enemy know we nbroad. are sending films Maybe silence is a useful cloak here because I doubt if the Ministry has complet red a single m designed
specifically for export.
But we
Page
seldom suitable for considered propaganda, The Army has a Film Unit of two men at home and two abroad. None of them is a pro- ducer or director and they have no commission to do other than act as a. sort of extra newsreel unit...
Some of their film is pút into vaults for "Mr. Posterity," as official records are jocularly call- ed, and some offered to the news- reels by whom it is consistently rejected, not because it is poor but because the newsreels have al- ready covered the items.
So we may well ask, with the Americans and the Argentinians, where are the films of the Men of the Tank Corps., the Big Guns,' the Service Corps and the Infan- try? Where is the day-to-day drama of bomber squadrons taking off into the dusk?.
When asked to explain this as- British fonishing failure to use Alms to tell the world, the con- venient reply is "The Treasury
We have no duubi centon't give money for films." But abroad foreign langua re ver- I wonder if this is the only rea- sions of a few documentaries son? Do those, in whose power it Squadron 992 and Behind rests to order such films really the Guns but these were have the will to make them? Are Fame they anxious to reflect what the nade primarily for use. We have produced to
Press calls the Will of the People? equivalent of the Nazi Bantism of Are they eager to tell neutrals Fire, their film of the Polish In- that Britain is changing from the vasion designed to scare neutrals, status quo that led to Munich? nor should we in content,
Can this avoidance of facts be could have produced why the British Council makes films of Democracy in the work-films of Oxford, the City of ing and of the kind of world we Learning, and British bloodstock hope to build when this war is and not of bomber pilots and des- over. In 12 months we could troyer ratings? And, most im- have put on the screens across the portant of all, of the British peo- world 50 films of British outlook. ole at war on their own hearths? that British strength and British hero-Or is it the simpler reason ism. But does this rest with the these affaial bodies still have no M. of I., or with the Foreign Office, real contact with the spirit of the the Department of Overseas people whose war it is? Trade, or perhaps the. Armed Ser vices themselves?
2
*
Just before the war a brilliant satire was written on the British film industry called "Nobody Or dered Wolves." Better than any Neither the R.A.F. nor the Navy balance sheets or bankruptcy. has an official Film Unit, Nows courts it showed why the British How many films in 12 month reels are sometimes given facili-film trade fell into disrepute.. on "political" subjects, then, hastles. But it cannot be stressed Someone had better get busy to- the M. of I made specifically for too often that newsreel camera-'day on a book about the official foreign showing? The anrwe: men "shoot" for the special job of film activity of the war. They can must be on the secret list; we must Stop Press news and their stuff is call it "Nobody Ordered Films.".
How The Raiders Come
Civilians can be made are a. reserved occupation over
wear rayon in place ofhirty! otton or wool, but for in- The documentary film people ustry, in time of war, it is should, of course, have been taken. over lack, stock and barrel by the finitely more difficult to Government's Ministry of Inform- British people with their backs to ation and set to develop the field; the wall, the British Council can spense with iron, copper, they knew so well. Instead, they shrug its gentlemanly shoulders 1, and rubber. The most have Been left to pounce on the and refer to its pledge to make
cdd scraps of films which the M. only "cultural" films. gnificant fact, however, of I.'s Film Division cares to drop that these materials around. And most. if not all, of these films are for British au- te supplied at present licnces. redominantly from An- The fight for the proper use of o-American sources, few nim for foreign propaganda is not them within easy reach new. It flared up over what films Britain should send to represent Japan. Australia has itself to the American people at pplied important quan-last year's New York World's Fair. It was the documentary people, ies of raw materials, the than, and not the official bodies,. nited States has export- who saw that an honest expres- special machinery, rell-sion of the British character was g-stock, special steels, That there were people in au- d other industrial ma-thority blind to the real spirit of rials which Japan can- the British people was bad enough in peace-time; but, to-day it is ot at present produce for positively dangerous, Overseas, Le satisfaction of her nations now more than ever need, a clear and honest picture of the eds. The more respon- everyday British people who are ble elements in Japan, pitting their all against annihila-
tion. ose with an appreciation
her precarious situa for this vital job of foreign pro- Two bodies appear responsible on, appear to be keenly paganda: The British Council and ve to the appalling risk the Ministry of Information. The e runs if she should cut rself off from her sup-
presented to the Americans.
former
Films Committee of the still retains the Guilty Men who epitomise the old school of foreign
propaganda, There is not a single les of these things. In professional film publicist among e past, there has been them.
unwillingness to pro- Relations between this Olde de them in the normal Worlde body, with its faded un
derstanding of the British people, urse of trade, apart and the M. of I. appear obscure. om such conservation of the other is supposed to do, except Sources as may have that each has agreed to mind its own business. Their respective en necessary to defence business is somewhat ambiguously eparations. If, however, defined as the difference between
Neither seems clear as to what
films.
A
"MESSERSCHMITT, 110
HEINKEL
TE
MESSERSCHMITT 199.
DORNIER 215
HINKÄL-JES
JUNKERS BA
THESE diagrams. attempt to
1
α
11,000.BT.
2,000.37.
2
3
partment, which is now extending answer a most difficult ques a town like Dover. Some 20 Hein- a formation of Dornier 215 bomb-
Diagram. (1) is a side-shot over rbird's eye views. In diagram (2) kel He.111 bombers have come ars is being escorted to Britain. over in the sandwich formation. The bombers fly, in arrow head schmidt sandwich, Above and guardian Heinkel 113 single-seat They are the ham in a Messer- formation. In out and above fly below them fly layers or slices of fighters, twice as many fighters as slice. Not shown in the elevation Messerschmidt 110's fly about on Mc.109. fighters-50 Aghters to the bombers, Cn the flanks groups of picture are the other fighters with the merry-go-round, plan, looking a roving commission. Those are for the trouble they will inevit- Messerschmidt 110 twin-engined ably ind. fighters. Several single machines Diagram (3) follows the same are flying on the flanks of the general idea; but the Junkers Ju sandwich formation ready to de- 88 bombers are flying in
astern.. In front and above fly
"political" and "cultural" e new pact can mean no what a side-laugh this must give s than that Japan has Dr. Goebbels! tered into a clear-cut The British Council's Film De- litary alliance with our emies, she can scarcely s premises, has £71,800 to spend
on cultural films for overseas, so tion. Many people want to know ntinue to count on the its secretary tells me. This figure what tactles the German air force pply of potential war includes cost of copies of films and employs when its squadrons at-
transit charges, but not establish- tack Britain, aterials from those ment costs.
They want to know whether the ainst whom she has de-
With this sum it is busy making enemy aircraft arrive over the coast approaches. in formation, formations. red herself. The ex- such Alms as Britain's Reply to and what are those mists: in Japan are not forward the folk songs
the Nazi Challenge, which puts Also, they want to know how the of the enemy uses fighters to protect his ely to be deterred from Scottish shepherd and the Welsh bombers. ir course by economic youth worship of the military is not at all bound by convention fend it against attack.
The enemy is full of tricks, and nger so long as they im- marching tune.
or habit. He'll try anything once This formation will be held un-the. Mc. 100's, Eor the protection So the German bombers with til the coast is reached; when the of the flanks and the rear of the ine their available mili
their attendant fighters cross the bombers will break up into several bomber formation Messerschmidt Americans, no doubt, will re-Channel in varying numbers, in small groups and go their several 110's also fly in ling astern, above call that the Nazis entered Oslo to all sorts of formations.
ways, each with a share of the the bombers but below the arrow- the music of "Roll Out the Bar One thing is clear. The Ger- fighter escort. The twin-engined head of fighters.
With all their, varying, forma- rol," a tune not unknown, in the mops have discovered at great lighters..either hang about locking ry reason to fear the British Army. It bus also a film on cost. Just how vulnerable their for British fightqu or return tions, the Germans, like to send over separate groups of fighters to wer of an Anglo-Ameri Ulster's war effort, naturally with bombers are to our fighters. The home.
out reference to Eire, American bombers are now projected by. It does not always happen, just act as decoys, intended to divert trade embargo to audiences are not off course, at mormous masses of fighters, like this because the R.A.F. often the attention, of our fighters from ng their war machine tuned to Manch of Time's contro- Often the bombers are profeetod Interfere with the German plans, the following formation and to
paraial voice on such a subject of by five times their number of| Now turn to diagrams (2)- and | draw the fire of our guns.
RONALD WALKER. dynamite, a standstill.
(3). These are either corni..or fightera.
y supplies to be suf
ent for the next imme-
te step, but they have
miner as a contrast to the Nazi
line.