CO537-5142 — Page 228

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UPPLEMENTARIOS

(1) It is suggested that any attempt to elicit further

information about the possible increase in the power of the

Hong Kong Station should be resisted.

(2) If it be asked why the high frequencies necessary to

enable a station in Hong Kong to broadcast over a large part of China

were not secured in the same international agreement as accorded

them to the Singapore Station, it may be said that acute and world-

wide shortage of suitable frequencies made this impracticable.

(3) Any suggestion that Hong Kong rather than Singapore should

have been chosen originally as the main site for the projection of

the voice of Britain to the Far East would be primarily a matter

for ocument by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,

(4) If it is suggested that the British Far Eastern

Broadcasting Station in Singapore is not widely or easily audible

China, Members may be remindad

(a) thịt the present station is only a temporary one with

relatively low power,

(b) that it will be replaced as soon as possible (1-2 years)

the powerful 'Voios of Britain' station in the state of

Johore, the necessary instrument for the establish:ent of

which by the B.B.C, was recently approved by the House

(20.1,49: Cand.7584), and

arrangement

(c) that it is understood that, to tide over the intervening

period until the Johore station is ready,

with the Government of Ceylon, a powerful transmitter there

was brought into service last month (April), which

broadcasts programes in Chinese and other languages and is

heard well in China,

(5) Any implication that it is a simple matter to increase

substantially the power and range of a broadcasting station might be

refuted by pointing out that even during the late war this considerab)

and complex operation could not be accomplished in the twinkling of

an eye and mist always require a good deal of planning and

preparation,