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PROGRAMME SECRETARY'S OFFICE TEL. 26822

STUDIO TEL. 23560

CHINESE SECRETARY TEL. 31628

CHINESE WAITING ROOM TEL. 24028

HONG KONG BROADCASTING STUDIO

GLOUCESTER BLD., 2ND FL.

0.J. Whitley, Esq., Broadcasting Section, Colonial Office,

Downing Street, London, W.1.

11th August, 1948.

22.

Dear Whitley,

I really feel most guilty that I have never written to you since last summer, but I am sure you will understand how tremendously busy we have been trying to put this place on its feet again, and I now really do feel that I can write and tell you that we have had a certain amount of success. In fact, far more than I had ever hopea for, twelve months ago. Blackburne, who was here for about six days seemed to be quite favourably impressed with our diminutive organisation and amazed that we manage to put out fourteen hours a day with such a ridiculously small staff.

I wonder how you are getting on with your job in London, and how much progress you have been able to make since I last saw you? I gather from Blackburne that you are terribly busy and have to carry the whole burden of responsibility for all Colonial broadcasting matters.

I wonder if you saw our last P.M.G. in London? I am afraid everyone con- nected with broadcasting out nere, and nearly everybody in the Colony gave a great sigh of relief when his somewhat murky career came to an end last autum.

Subsequently we have been able to go ahead quite well with such things as the planning of the new studios to be built in Cable & Wireless' new building, the appointment of a full-time News and Talks Editor, P.0. Phillips, which has just come through this week from your end, and in the very near future the raising of the licence fee. It was so wonderful to be able to plan studios from scratch instead of having to make the best of completely unsuitable adapted offices, and I think that with the inclusion of a concert hall, we will be more than able to hold our own with any station in the Far East and in any of the Colonies.

Considerable pressure has been brought to bear lately both in the local press and, strange to say, from T.V. Soong's office in Canton, demanding that Hong Kong rather than Singapore be heard in China and the Far East. This is, of course, a Foreign Office affair, but I do feel that we can offer a programme, especially in Chinese, which would have an extremely high value as far as Sino-British relationships are concerned.

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