SOFTENING THE UNDERBELLY
Stir,—'The Allies are actively engaged* in softening the already rather gabby underbelly of the Axis ; they are doing it by an aerial bombard- ment which gives the Italians a regular 24-hour service. This round- the-clock assault takes a double form. The more material part of it is delivered by the Allied Air Forces, which consign their "messages " with deadly accuracy wherever they will do the most good. The other element of our air• warfare is—or should be—the broadcasting of verbal messages no less accurately aimed, no less devastating to the morale of the Italians than our high explosives, no less fiery than our incendiary bombs.
Is this work being as well and truly done as that of our bombers? It is not. Just as our bombers have been carrying on their work both from home and ...African bases, that of broadcasting to the Italian people should not be left exclusively to the B.B.C. Excellent work though their Italian Service has done, it is hampered by distance and by the systematic jamming carried out by Italian stations. Obviously, it should be completed by a no less competent job done through the strategically situated transmitters in North Africa.
Instead of which, both-Algiers and Rabat are broadcasting exclusively in French, with the sole exception of a ten minutes daily programme addressed to the German troops of occupation in France. And even these programmes are of a depressing mediocrity: they are composed of stale news, always .at least one day behind the B.B.C. service, and of platitudinous comments recalling by their turgid bombast some of the worst aspects of French official broadcasts during the winter of 1939-40 —a dangerous example to recall to French minds. Incredibly, every single item, good, bad, or indifferent, is preceded and followed by ear- splitting marches, blaring fanfares, or noisy jazz music. Now,. everyone knows that listening to foreign broadcasts is prohibited in France under severe, penalties. The French Service of the B.B.C., therefore, warns Its listeners, before putting on a record of martial music, to lower the volume of their sets, a simple precaution totally ignored by the North African stations.
Worse still, these commonplace programmes are made even more trite by endless repetitions, the same items being reiterated verbatim hour after hour, like a defective gramophone record. Worst of all, these oadcasts are not only totally useless—France being already very well tared for by the B.B.C.—they also deprive us of the possibility of aging an effective radio warfare against Mussolini's tottering regime.
Can the Ministry of Information and/or the Office of War Information
" Tranby Croft," Rowlands Avenue, Hatch End, Middlesex.
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