'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎105v] (210/314)

great number lof cases, agents refused to take copies of a
magazine which was being distributed free to large
numbers of potential customers. Some 25,000 copies in
various editions are still being sent to Indian troops
abroad.
Another respect in which the reduction in the supply
of Dunya to the armed forces is satisfactory is that we are
now no longer obliged to include six pages of material
dealing with military matters. While this subject
must always be well represented, too much insistence
upon it is inclined to lower the appeal of the magazine
among civilian readers. Dunya has great possibilities as a
multi-lingual magazine since the addition of new language
editions presents little difficulty. Our experiments in
the overprinting of editions of Dunya whose size did not
justify the etching of entire cylinders has proved successful.
The process is laborious, but it does enable us to order
bulk quantities of blanks (i. e. picture layouts without
type matter) and allot them to new editions which are
being tried out as an experiment. We now have under
consideration Chinese, Malay, Arabic and Tibetan
editions of Dunya. The first three of these have consi
derable possibilities and if the print orders can be pushed
above 10,000 it will pay us to print throughout by
rotogravure. The Tibetan edition, on the other hand,
is hardly expected to rise above 1,000.
Dunya may lend itself to many interesting experiments
in publicity. One of the many difficulties attending the
distribution of publicity material in Afghanistan is the
Afghan Government’s policy of making Pushtu the na
tional language in spite of the fact that Persian as a
literary medium is traditionally preferred. This means
that while they do not wish to increase the volume of
Persian literature in circulation, Pushtu literature must
remain largely unread. It is thought that a Pushtu-Afghan
Persian edition of Dunya would both please the Afghan
Government as being an aid to the study of Pushtu by
Persian-speaking elements, and also appeal to the majority
of literates whose language is Persian.
Another interesting experiment would be an English-
Afrikaans edition. This might prove an exceedingly
useful item in the Union of South Africa where an
unsatisfactory situation prevails with regard to the large
Indian community there. The magazine would provide
the South African people with much sorely needed
information about Indian progress, while the Indian
community, almost all of whom know either English or
Afrikaans, would be gratified to read a magazine largely
concerned with their own country which was also
available to the South Africans.
C THE EUTU&E OP FO&EKN PUBLICITY.
Although its internal activities have greatly increased
during 1946, the main preoccupation of the Publications
Division must still be regarded as foreign publicity. Not
only are two thirds of its productions actually distributed
abroad, but even those distributed in India are what
might be described as “reverse foreign publicity”, namely,
the instruction of the Indian public on foreign affairs.
The attitude of Indian politicians and pressmen to
foreign publicity, though apparently unreasoned and
highly regrettable, can be traced to deep-seated psycholo
gical causes the removal of which will take some time.
It is unlikely that an Indian National Government woulpl
fail to appreciate the value of publicity either abroad ^r
in India, nor is there any reason to suppose that the
actual nature of the publicity which they conducted
would differ noticeably from our present productions^
It is not unnatural that in their present mocd th
nationalist opposition to the existing Government place
a higher value on negative, denunciatory and even vitu
perative publicity than on the positive projection Any method by which the earth’s curved surface may be transposed (or projected) on to a flat surface. of India.
They believe that any suggestion that India is already
progressing redounds to the credit of the present Govern
ment which they are anxious to discredit in every possible
way both inside and outside India. In these unfortunate
but unavoidable circumstances, our main object should
probably be to keep in existence the organization which
we have built up with so much care in order that it
may prove a useful legacy to the Indian National Govern
ment when it comes into being.
While we can hardly expect to obtain the unquaL^I
approval of Indian nationalists for our present activities^
it is possible that much more could be done to convince
them that these activities, even in the interim period,
are beneficial to India, are in no sense anti-Indian, that
they by no means project the Government as the sole
author of Indian progress and that they continue to draw
attention to the inherent skill, culture and industry of
the Indian people. Publicizing publicity is an art in
itself and one which we have perhaps neglected. Since
»ve have been more fortunate than other publicity
organizations in being allowed to continue our activities,
we should do our best to see that those activities are
better understood in future.
Dated : 1st April, 1946.
G. E. WHEELER
U.P.— 160—1—4—46.