I find, from information reaching me from outside the B.B.C.,
that I was unwittingly unjust in attributing to the Religious Director of the B.B.C., and his advisory committee, responsi- bility for " banning " various well-known preachers of different denominations on account of their pacifist views. This was, in fact, I am assured, a policy in which Mr. Welch and the committee have been compelled against their will to acquiesce. Whose policy, then, is it? That of the Director-General of the B.B.C., Mr. F. W. Ogilvie? Mr. Ogilvie is no Reith. He, too, has to do a great deal of acquiescing. The real power is the Chairman of the B.B.C., Sir Allan Powell, who, now that the Board of Governors has been reduced from seven members to two—at the sacrifice of such progressive personalities as Dr. J. J. Mallon and Miss Margery Fry—has become practically supreme at Broadcasting House. It might be hard to define what qualifications are most needed in a virtual dictator of the B.B.C. Sir Allan's, judging from his record in Who's Who, have hitherto concerned food, hygiene and public assistance. The whole question of the effective control of the B.B.C., and its relation to the Ministry of Information and the House of Commons, and the powers exercised by its Governors and its Director-General, seems to need searching investigation.
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