CO537-5142 — Page 58

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conduct itself responsibly in its relations with: Government. Limited time on the air could be reserved for Government's use, and for rebroadcasting B. B. C. programmes,under the licence. But the programme would be mainly light entertainment and the company would only accept the concession if it was allowed to broadcast 'Spot' advertisements and sponsored programmes. For better or for worse, the broadcasting service in the colony would be based, as is inevitable in any commercial broad- casting Service, upon the lowest common denominator of the public taste.

The latest figures available show that the gross cost of broadcasting in Hong Kong in 1947 was about $500,000. Revenue from wireless licences, at $12, was $233,000. I understand that an increase of the licence to 20 has been under consideration. The number of licences is rising steeply, and if the increase were made the Government would very nearly, if not quite, make the service Self-Supporting.

It seems to me that the Governor is adopting a rather supine and defeatist attitude to the whole problem. I do not doubt that increasingly heavy Defence Commitments must be met. But I do doubt whether any colony is ever free for many years at a stretch from heavy pressure, external or internal, the financial consequences of which invariably cause its Administration to look round to see what current expenditure can be got rid of. Commercial broad- casting is always waiting at the street corner, ready to offer an easy solution to a harassed Government. If, therefore, any Colonial Government genuinely believes in the power for good of broad- casting, efficiently and imaginatively conducted as a public service, it must face up to and resist the temptation to throw it overboard at the first sign of a financial typhoon.

Naturally the Government broadcasting service in Hong Kong "will get worse and worse" if it is not only treated financially as a poor relation but is kept on tenterhooks as to its future. The staff, who always know what Senior Government officials are thinking in such circumstances, cannot be expected to give their best. Long term planning is impossible.

The Governor's gloom, at present, does not seem to have permeated the broadcasting organisation, for not long ago I received an enthusiastic report from the Senior Programme Officer, looking forward to the stimulating experience of using new and, for the first time, adequate premises and equipment and forecasting that the service, with the proposed increase in the licence fee, might soon be self- supporting.

In the wider setting of Colonial broadcasting policy, the results of a transfer to commercial broadcasting in Hong Kong would make nonsense of the Secretary of State's policy, as enunciated in para- graph 3 of his Circular Despatch on Broadcasting in the Colonies of 14th May, 1949 (copy attached). Anyone who reads the Handbook on Broadcasting Services in the Colonies will be able to see that the Hong Kong Service more nearly meets its expenditure from revenue than any other Colonial Government broadcasting service. The implications of a surrender to commercial broadcasting there

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