The Projection of Britain
In a letter to The Times last Tuesday, Sir Angus Gillan deals with two opposite arguments about the British Council, both of which in his opinion are wrong. The Times, in giving its blessing to the Council's work on its tenth anniversary, suggested that there ought to be a separate Council for operation in the Empire. Mr. M. R. K. Burge, in challenging this duplication of services, went to the other extreme in appearing to advocate the fusion of whatever remains of the Ministry of Information with the British Council. Sir Angus Gillan, just returned from Australia, agrees with Mr. Burge that there would be nothing but loss in severing the Council's service to the Empire from that to foreign countries, but convincingly shows that the British Council is not the body to discharge the duty of interpreting current Government policy abroad, and equally that a Government department is not an appropriate instrument for inter- preting British life and thought to foreign peoples The high prestige which the British Council has won abroad rests on the fact that it is known to give an objective account of the British people, British institutions, British ways of life. It has been effective in promoting understanding of this country among foreign nations because it has never been regarded as a mere instrument of Government policy. Its " projection " of Britain has been acceptable because it is. recognised as objective and disinterested. At the moment when peace and inter- national trade depend as never before on international understanding, a British Council, if it did not exist, would have to be created.
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