If the B.E.F. can manifest the same stubborn obduracy which
so conspicuously distinguishes the B.B.C., the issue of the war should be secure. What I have in mind in particular are the news bulletins, especially " the nine o'clock news." These are not days when most of us have abundant leisure. What we want is to hear the news, the whole news and nothing but the news. If there are to be frills and embroideries, let them be for those who like such things. But the B.B.C. will have none of that. Right in the middle of the bulletin, when there is obviously more news to come—it has actually been announced, indeed, in the initial summary—comes a sudden and relentless check. " Here is a recorded despatch from Charles Gardner, our observer in France," followed in all like- lihood by a recorded despatch from Edward Ward, our observer in Belgium. Now Mr. Gardner and Mr. Ward are both of them not only observers but admirable observers, and listeners who have time to hear them at all would certainly hear them as readily at the end of the programme as in the middle of it. But, No, says the B.B.C. We have sent these men out and we are going to see to it that the maximum number of listeners listen to them, whether they like it or not. That is what is meant by holding the front intact against heavy pressure. The B.B.C. never budges.
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