21 JUNE 1935, Page 2

The B.B.C. and the Public Sir John Reith has been

expressing himself with some vigour on the wastage of effort resulting from, the failure of various persons and organizations, particularly the schools, to take full advantage of the programmes the B.B.C. offers them. His feelings are intelligible. There is terrible wastage of effort in the office of every paper whose circulation is less than its deserts, or the study of every author who sells fewer copies of his works than he conceives their merits to justify. And there is ground for Sir John's discontent. Schools might well make more use of wireless than they do, and it is satisfactory that Mr. Ramsbotham should have announced on Monday that that was the view of the Board of Education. Mean- while Lord Iliffe has been suggesting that in one direction the B.B.C. might avoid wastage of effort by curtailment of effort. Speaking at a Press dinner on Friday he observed that while newspapers had not the least desire to check the activities of the B.B.C. in its own legitimate Sphere, they did ask that a careful watch should be kept against any incursion into fields properly belonging to the independent publishing industry. That is a perfectly reasonable stipulation, for the B.B.C. 's publications, with all the resources of an immense public organization behind them, start with peculiar advantages, and ought in no circumstances to enter into competition with independent enterprises.