BRITANNIA RULES THE AIR WAVES

A University lecturer who "may deliver occasional lectures" is a rather extraordinary individual. When that lecturer is a director of the British Broadcasting Corporation--an integral part of the wartime "Office of Information"--and has been given a Harvard title "under a special grant", there are grounds for healthy scepticism.

On the surface, Harvard stands only to gain by this appointment. Essential in the long range campaign for better public relations are interesting radio broadcasts. Faculty dissertations on the "Effect of Income Fluctuations on the Marginal Propensity to Consume" may serve a purpose, but hardly that of making new friends for Harvard. Mr. Siepmann, who has been prominent in the realm of adult education, can be of great assistance. And the Radio Workshop could obviously ask for no better guide and tutor.

America may well benefit from Mr. Siepmann's visit. In the opinion of many scholars, including Harvard's Professor Herring, the United States are far behind Britain in radio adult education. Commercialism, of course, is the fundamental evil as far as this is concerned. Pioneers are the British Broadcasting Corporation and its distinguished director of program planning.

But it would be naive to imagine that Mr. Siepmann's visit is purely academic. Obviously, he will travel about the country, but ton-holing the leading radio executives, dining and wining them, discussing -- in an off-hand manner, of course -- the unfortunate war into which Britain has been dragged. He will reminisce on the subject of cricket, paint a picture of the jolly old hills of England, and dwell upon the good fellowship which blesses Anglo-American relations. If he is adroit at the art--and obviously he is adroit, or Britain would never have let such a valuable man go in time of war -- American radio executives should learn much which will profoundly affect their later treatment of war news.

In giving Mr. Siepmann a Harvard title, which will prove an open sesame in the circles in which he will move, the University made a tactical blunder. In these days of indirect propaganda, the coloring of news dispatches and radio programs is all-important: it has a cumulative effect upon the mental climate of the people. If Britain is successful in convincing the United States that it must step in and save the cause of world civilization, Harvard can boast of having contributed to that end.