* * * * There is a good deal to
be said both for and against the proposed B.B.C. debate on the future of the German colonies, but much more, in my judgement, against than for. I have no belief in burking discussion on this or any other topic, but here is a matter which may at any moment be forming the subject of most delicate diplomatic negotiations which the B.B.C., with a potential audience of ten million listeners or so, ought not to prejudice by staging a debate in which the preponderance of argument will almost certainly incline one way or the other. The B.B.C. no doubt aims at holding the balance precisely even. That might be just possible if one competent and dispassionate person was charged with stating the arguments on one side and the other in strict objectivity. In a debate it is all but impossible, for the personalities of debaters are an essential factor, and you cannot put two human beings in the scales and make them weigh equal if they don't. I hope the B.B.C. will think again about the colonies—for I assume its purpose here is simply to instruct, not to persuade.
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