Letters to the Editor
The BBC's Russian Service TV Apple Cart Light for Taper Saucy Kippers The Liberal Creed Australian Women Kings Cross to Euston Masochist or Paranoiac? Cigarettes and Lung Cancer Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn Professor H. Sewn-Watson Jack Hawkins P. Ingress Bell, MP, Rev. D. M. Greenhalgh Cyril Ray George Watson Dr. Bill Rowe A. S. B. Glover C. F. Melville Hans Keller, Dr. A. Piney Anita Engle THE BBC'S RUSSIAN SERVICE
8111'--MaY I comment briefly, with apologies for a delay caused by absence from London, on Mr. Grctton's letter of August 2. Mr. Gretton's rather ponderously ironic reference wmyself implies that I am in some way associated ith his programmes. May I correct this impression? At the time of the Soviet counter-revolution in 1.1„ ("Vary last November I did propose to the BBC's Russian Service that I should give two talks, not as a Russian expert' (a non-existent species), but as one with some knowledge of some aspects of Hungarian Politics capable of broadcasting in Russian. My ttas were recorded and broadcast, together with some introductory remarks which took pains to dissociate the Russian Service from my opinions. At no time before or since this have I inflicted my services on the Russian Service, nor have they been requested by it. Mr. Gretton answers one question asked by Mr. Wiles which was also asked by me. He confirms that the BBC's Russian Service uses for 'Labour Party' the term used by Radio Moscow : kiboristskaya. This word, quite alien to the Russian language, is deliberately used by ,the Soviet propagandists in order to suggest to te Russian people that the Labour Party is not a working-class party. In Russian ears the ugly word leiboristskaya Makes much the same impression as the word kumnintang in British ears : of something outlandish, obscure and rather unpleasant. That the Soviet leaders should Wish to create this impression is understandable enough: that British broadcasts should acquiesce in It is a little surprising. On the British side the sur- render to this Soviet manoeuvre started in 1945 when, an the formation of the Labour Government, the Journal British Ally,' published in Moscow with British and Soviet joint editors, used the word leibori,ltskaya instead of the correct translations rabochaya ('workers") or traria ('of labour'). The BBC has followed. The fact that Radio Liberation and Voice of America use the same name is irrelevant: Mr. Gretton can hardly expect that, if his Service follows the lead of Radio Moscow, American stations will take up the, cudgels on behalf (f British Labour. It is not too late for Mr. Gretton t)
Russian adopt the correct translation, explaining to his "ssian listeners why he does so. This is no verbal 9uibble: it is essential to the whole task of present- ing to Russian listeners the place of the working class in British society. What can be more impor- tant than that?
In conclusion may I repeat the essence of what has already been admirably stated by Mr. Wiles and Mr. Schapiro, and what I myself in my earlier letter
attempted to state, but evidently without making my meaning cfear to Mr. Gretton. News bulletins arc admirable, but all they need are a few Russian translators. If we are to have only news, as Mr. Frank, perhaps rightly, suggests, we need no Russian Service of the BBC. Presentation of Britain is, of course, important, and no doubt your correspondent Mr. Dimont does it brilliantly. But there is a third task: to discuss, in terms in- telligible to Soviet citizens, the problems of society and politics which affect them in their daily life in the Soviet Union. There is abundant evidence that young Soviet citizens are passionately, critically and intelligently interested both in the reality of their own society and in what the West thinks about it. Intelligent discussion of Soviet social problems, intelligent comment on Soviet political affairs, which are excluded from the Soviet press, have a potential audience in the Soviet Union. It is to these people that the Russian Service should be addressing itself. The last thing we want, of course, is ranting propa- ganda. The BBC's preference for sophisticated presentation is entirely justified, but this does not mean that it should ignore the political context. To suggest that the only choice is between no political or social comment on Soviet affairs .and ranting propaganda is disingenuous. The Soviet Government's spokesmen and unofficial advocates of course wish us to believe that only this false choice exists, but that is no reason why the BBC's Russian Service should believe it. In my earlier letter I mentioned only a few of the subjects that could be discussed, in Russian and in other languages of the Soviet Union, and you, Sir, took up some of these points in your columns on July 19. As none of these points have been answered, we may be for- given if we assume that none of these subjects figure in the broadcasts of the Russian Service.
It would, of course, be silly to exaggerate the effects that such broadcasts could have, even if they were of the highest quality. If it be true that the best hope of national, or even physical, survival for the people of Britain in the next twenty years lies in the movement of Soviet society away from the totalitarian imperialism of the dead Stalin and the living Khrushchev, it is equally true that such movement depends far more on the people of the Soviet Union than on Western broadcasting. Never- theless, the injection of ideas from outside, though it cannot create the movement, can accelerate it. If a politically minded, intelligent and sophisticated BBC's Russian Service could accelerate it by I per cent., it would be worth a good many aircraft and divisions. I hope, Sir, that neither the silence of the Russian Service nor the indifference of our politicians will deter you from your admirable efforts to cast light on this dark corner of our national defence.— Yours faithfully,
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