The B.B.C. Enquiry
No one who takes the trouble to study carefully the report presented by Sir Valentine Holmes on the investigation he has conducted into allegations made against employees of the B.B.C. in Parliament and elsewhere will be content simply to accept his final conclusion that " there is no solid foundation for any charge of bribery, corruption or partiality against members of the B.B.C. staff." The verdict need not be challenged, but the evidence that leads up to it brings to light the existence of many practices which call for sharp criticism. It may be true that in the unfamiliar and unpalatable milieus from which Sir Valentine Holmes withdraws a veil, where " song-plugging " appears to be a major activity of life, the exchange, or unilateral bestowal, of douceurs of considerable intrinsic value is a recognised business practice. What is incom- prehensible is that the B.B.C., which is not an ordinary commercial concern, but a Public Utility Corporation where no standards below the highest can be countenanced, should have permitted members of its staff to receive regularly valuable gifts from persons whom they were in a position to benefit in return, by granting them various facilities at the microphone. It is not suggested that they did in fact make such return ; Sir Valentine Holmes expressly says they did not. It is true also that these gifts had theoretically to be reported, but it is admitted that this practice was allowed to lapse till, in December 1946, after the charges against the B.B.C. had been made by Wing-Commander Cooper in the House of Commons, an order was issued that "no presents from business contacts might be accepted by the B.B.C. staff." Such an order was obviously long overdue. The B.B.C. must be above suspicion ; it cannot afford anything less. That has clearly not been sufficiently recognised.
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