CO537-5142 — Page 220

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Hansard

Exchack from

Thursday 5th may

Mr. Fletcher:

There is then the question of the radio, which has already been raised. I thought that the answer given about that yester- day showed a profound misunderstanding of the whole subject. The idea that a radio which is to have a big influence in China can be run from Malaya is totally wrong, and I hope the Prime Min- ister will devote a little time to the reasons I shall give for saying that. Hong Kong is so close to China, although it is not part of it, that the whole mentality, climate and atmosphere are truly ¡Chinese. That is certainly not so in Malaya, and the expatriate Malayan Chinese do not think in the same terms as the inhabitants of China. To put a radio station about 2,000 miles away in order to broadcast over China may have some sense for South China; it will take about two years to come into being, and what is wanted now, and very urgently -and I think it of the very first priority of all defence measures, and of all the measures to swing the people of China away from Communism-is the develop- ment of the radio in Hong Kong.

Whatever the cost may be, and what- ever other schemes might have to be sacrificed to it, I would put that as the first practical recommendation to deal with this situation. I believe that the

Prime Minister knows from his own ex- perience in India, as do many others in this House, the great value that radio was before the war, when in India there was the village set. I believe that to be equally true in China. It must be so for the Communists to rely so very greatly on their own wireless for a good deal of their propaganda. As a practical step I would urge that an enormous increase in the power and the staff of the Hong Kong radio station should be considered.

The Prime Minister : I cannot say more than that consultation is going on with regard to the particular radio that shall be sent out, its strength, and so forth.

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