BRITAIN ON THE AIR
Sist,—In your issue dated. April 18th you published an interesting letter from two correspondents in Ceylon criticising amongother manifesta- tions of British culture and the British way of life—the overseas broad- casts of the B.B.C. It would take up rather a lot of your space to offer a detailed reply to the somewhat sweeping criticisms made, and in any case I personally am only qualified to speak for the particular B.B.C. Service which I direct. By chance, the letter to which I refer was brought to my notice at the exact moment when I was sitting in my office listening to a highly cultural talk from the Third Programme which was being re-transmitted in the B.B.C.'s Eastern Service, which is specifically directed to India and Ceylon. This Service, for 11 hours every evening, transmits in English a programme which has just the aim of offering listeners a cross-section of what is best and most vital in British culture and British thought. The Third Programme and the B.B.C. Home Service are freely exploited for their contributions to the Eastern Service ; for example, every Friday evening at 8.35 p.m., under the programme billing "From the Third Programme," listeners in Ceylon and India can hear talks and other features of the kind which your correspondents appear to have believed inaccessible to them.
The B.B.C. has an office in New Delhi, of which one of the functions is to provide listeners, in India and Ceylon with any programme informa- tion they may require. If your correspondents will write to the Director, B.B.C. Office, P.O. Box 109, New Delhi, I think they will find they can go at least a considerable way towards hearing from London the kind of radio programmes which would satisfy them that the B.B.C. is not neglecting either its responsibilities or its opportunities.—Yours faithfully, DONALD STEPHENSON, Director of Eastern Services. Broadcasting House, London, W.1.
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