1937-04-14 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 14, 1987.

"Stop the radio, which will stop the dictators, which will stop War

THE MAN WHO

"SILENCE!"

A fable of the future. Fondly imagined and respectfully re-

ers.

lated by

CYRIL JAMES-

the mike at that dictator.

and sense..

CRIED

Joseph Goebbels after the Reichs- wehr had vainly tried to quell two riots in Berlin closed down, his beloved transmitters.

Even Russia!

He received several thousand "Kids are taught to hate the kids anonymous letters, was asked to just across the frontier. And that's resign his position as vice-presi-

Almost immediately after the not all.

dent of a local bowls society. "If these politicians just went on A question was asked in the Soviet Union Commissar for Radio I

【N MARCH, 1987, there was as spouting with nothing happening House of Commons, and the. At- made his last broadcast speech and

sembled in Berlin a conference that wouldn't be so bad.

torney-General said he was consi- announced that Russia, too, was of the International Radio Union. "But you think what happened to dering what steps might be taken, going silent.

The truth was that the few sur-. Representatives of 100 nations poor little Dollfuss. Hitler and Hit- - Mrs. Ruggles found herself

viving radio nations found it was gathered to talk about the future ler's men villified him systemati- social outcast in her suburb. of radio and the future radio en- cally on the air. Powerful trans- Her daughter Maisie had a ner- futile to broadcast propaganda. tertainment of 220,000,000 listen- mitters flashed all that dope to vous breakdown following contin- Sets had been confiscated in other

Austria.

ued anonymous telephone calls, countries: there was nobody to lis- Now there happened to be at this "The Austrians listened. Some Ruggles's son-in-law, Julian, found ten.

So the studios were left to dust conference a man named John Rug- of them staged a Nazi coup. The his business declined to the point

and decay. gles. A likeable little man whose first place they seized was the ra- of extinction. attendance

There was silence on the ether- at the conference, dio station. Then

But the persecution died away, Dollfuss was

and in its place came a gradual utter, complete, everlasting...... whose presence in Berlin even, has murdered. never been satisfactorily explained. "Gentlemen, the radio murdered conviction that John Ruggles had And John Ruggles had disappear- He entered the scene of world Dollfuss: Just as it is murdering only been talking plain, common ed from the scene without waiting

every night affairs as a Little Man with a Sud- reputations

to claim the glory for thrusting denly Big Voice. When he quitted spreading abroad lies that are an This gathered weight until Rug- the threat of war centuries away.

gles's neighbours who had there was little more that could be incitement to murder.

A modest man, Ruggles would

said about him...

"And this stuff goes bang into viously hurled bricks at his bowler surely dislike the statue erected in millions of homes. We hear it at hat were now ready to crown its his honour.

It stands on the site "formerly It was at an afternoon session, our firesides. We listen fascinated. brim with a laurel wreath. when a delegate from Uruguay was Then slowly we begin to think Ruggles's speech drew an im- occupied by the League of Nations starting a long speech to the "Ca- there must be something in one mense response from the people, Building. The statue, boldly con- balleros di mundo radíophonica side or the other. The poison gets even. in countries where they had ceived and executed, shows Ruggles that the man Ruggles made to work. The seeds of war are almost forgotten how to think for in the picturesque costume he wore

at his first interruption....

themselves.

the Radio Conference.

"Bunkum and balderdash!" he

The forward tilt of the bowler; "Don't dare tell me that you For this March afternoon was suddenly shouted. And then-an never realised any of this. The dic- the start of a period we now know the shyly-peeping collar stud: these are a reminder of the heroic days exclamation that was destined to tators do. Hitler fines or imprisons as the Era of Silence. become historic-"Quiet, please any German found listening to France was the first country to when glamour, adventure and ro- all of you!"

Communist programmes. The same ban all broadcasting "as a measure mance still lingered in men's cos- fate awaits any Soviet citizen of national safety" Slowly the tumes. found listening to German propa- other nations followed Hungary The statue has been made in a Czechoslovakia new concrete composition. Rug- ganda.

gles's right hand is raised in a All over Europe the giant trans- warning gesture. mitters were falling silent. The Era of Silence had begun.

But ten years passed before: Dr.-

*

*

*

Delegates. swivelled around in their chairs to see a small man, dressed in morning clothes, a tall, stiff collar, a queer little bow and a black bowler hat.

He clasped an umbrella in one band and an attache case in the other.

Then he began a speech which the delegates were far too aston- ished to interrupt.

"You've been blathering on about the marvellous work radio is doing for world peace," he said. "Be honest and admit this is the biggest bit of hunkum the public's ever been asked to swallowa

Face the facts, gentlemen!

"I've often sat at home with my the wife, Gladys, and tuned in Continent. I like a little bit of homely Continental music.. What do we hear?

"Propaganda! Lies about Fas- ciam, Communism or any other 'ism' that the other fellow, believes. in and you don't

"This dictator bellows through

Five

sown.

"All over Europe scientists are trying to invent gadgets for howl- ing down or jamming the other fellow's broadcasts.

"Never mind howling down the stations. Shut up the lot of them.

little "I'm speaking for every man in the world. We're fed up. We're disappointed in radio. We've been let down.

"So I say stop the radio. That silences the dictators.

That re- moves the danger of war.

“And now,” concluded the man' Ruggles. "I suppose you will throw me out.”

*

His supposition was correct: next moment three attendants removed him.

For a while the whole laughed at John Ruggles, ·

Then amusement downright anger. John Ruggles

world

turned to

was. persecuted.

Million Volts

will

One of the sights which it is ex- cotton treated with rubber pected will attract large crowds at rotate at a tremendous speed. It is the Paris International Exhibition this cotton which by friction wil

elec- opening May 1 will be a huge cylin- charge the metal spheres with drical frame 92 feet high and as tricity. The spheres will weigh and a half each, and much in diameter where a dis-over a ton charge of five million volts will each generator over five tons. The produce the biggest spark ever electricity charged in each pole known.

will be under tension of five million Inside this giant frame there will volts and will be discharged con- be two columns, 40 feet high, each tinuously in the form of sparks. surmounted by a metal sphere over And yet a man will work quietly 9 feet in diameter. Between these and at ease Inside each of the two spheres, constituting two poles spheres whose surface will be sub- one positive and the other negative, jected to the highest charge in the a spark over 9 feet long will flash world. The apparatus for produc- continuously Each column, in ing the spark will take little space bakelite, will form" an iso inside the sphere and leave ade- lating support. In the interior, quate room for the operator and kept carefully dry, a thick belt ce his instruments.

Poland Austria.

pre-

And on a granite plinth these two words appear in letters of gold:

"QUIET, PLEASE!

CORONATION

1937

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