* * * * The Daily Express has given its
readers an opportunity of passing judgement on the banning by British authorities at Singapore of the American broadcaster Cecil Brown by printing the offending script in full It is a virulent attack on everything and everyone British at Singapore. Much of what is said about unpreparedness is no doubt fully justified, but the broadcast has little in common with the balanced and responsible estimates 'which we have learned to expect from so many of the best American broadcasters. The descriptive style which finds such expression as "that tall gangling air-marshal with the scraggly moustache and abashed manner of the schoolboy, whose personal adventuresomeness is belied by his personal appearance," does not inspire particular confidence, and the whole broadcast is very much in this vein. Its effect, there can be no doubt, would be to bring the white population into gross disrepute wherever in Asia the broadcast might be heard. Sober and vigorous criticism is one thing ; this high-pitched indictment is another. At a moment so critical it does not seem to me unreasonable for the authorities to say to Mr. Brown that he may cable what he likes to the United States, but not broadcast to all the world matter which must inevitably cause alarm and despondency throughout Malaya —except where the Japanese are in possession. The faults of the past must be fully explored at the right time, but Mr. Brown's broadcast had no constructive value as regards the immediate future. •
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