The Mass Communications Program of UNESCO was reviewed by a "working party" of members of the U. S. National Commission for UNESCO and experts from various fields at a meeting held in Washington on January 10. Recommendations were made to the Committee on Program, to be considered in the light of the semiannual meeting of the National Commission in April and the Fifth Session of the UNESCO General Conference in Florence, Italy, next May.

The group voted recommendations for closer cooperation between the Mass Communications Department of UNESCO and the Department of Public Information of the United Nations at Lake Success, in order to utilize the resources of both organizations as fully as possible in behalf of UNESCO objectives; and it favored the immediate establishment of an over-all Mass Communications Committee by the Committee on Program with provision for the panels necessary for proper functioning in various fields. Other recommendations urged:

1. An expanded mass-communications budget to enable UNESCO to meet its responsibilities in the suggested cooperative arrangements with the United Nations, and, particularly, to establish effective liaison with the United Nations and government and private networks in the field of radio.

2. Emphasis on a limited number of themes for the mass-communications program-such as the war against illiteracy, human rights, the problems of food and people and expansion of the production and distribution of discussion materials on such themes, with effective integration of the work of the Mass Communications Department with the work of other departments.

3. UNESCO Cooperation with government and private groups for the production of educational films, for broader use of existing films, and in facilitating exchanges of films between various countries.

4. UNESCO Cooperation with film industries throughout the world in support of UNESCO objectives.

Clarification of UNESCO's publications program, with provision for more effective reproduction and distribution of its publications in the United States and other member states.

Erwin D. Canham, Commission member and editor of the Christian Science Monitor, presided over the meeting. Other Commission members present were George F. Zook, chairman of the Committee on Program; Luther H. Evans, chairman of the Committee on Information; Edgar Dale, chairman of the Educational Film Panel, and Stanley H. Ruttenberg, a member of the Program Committee. Others in the working party included Mrs. Kathleen Lardie, chairman of the Educational Radio Panel; Watson Davis, head of Science Service; Roger Albright, Motion Picture Association of America; John Howe, of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and Herbert Edwards and Samuel De Palma, of the Department of State. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Howland H. Sargeant took part in the discussions. The working papers presented to the group by the UNESCO Relations Staff previously had been commented upon by various experts in mass-media fields.

Reports placed before the group told of progress made by UNESCO's Mass Communications Department, with stress placed on the increasing effectiveness of the new UNESCO Features for press and magazines, the monthly UNESCO Courier, the UNESCO World Review in radio, and UNESCO'S program of special articles, which since June 1, 1949, has resulted in 94 articles being prepared or commissioned for in various member states. While most such articles have been arranged directly by UNESCO with noted writers, its staff initiated a new form of public service through world distribution (outside the Americas) of 15 articles on "The Challenge of Cancer," by Lester Grant, which appeared originally in the New York Herald Tribune.

Reports on U.S. activities included data on the increased use of such UNESCO publications as the Courier, the Features and the UNESCO World Review; and explanations of (1) a pending nationwide educational program on "Food and People"; (2) preparation of a similar program on "Human Rights"; (3) the current program of Quill and Scroll, international honorary high-school journalistic society, through which UNESCO will be the theme this semester of high-school newspapers throughout the country; (4) a novel program

Pictured at the Washington meeting are, left to right around the conference table: Stanley H. Ruttenberg, Samuel De Palma, Luther H. Evans, Mrs. Kathleen Lardie, Max McCullough (behind Mrs. Lardie), Erwin D.Canham, chairman, Howard F. Vickery, John Howe, Edgar Dale, Wilbert H. Pearson, Watson Davis, Roger Albright, and Mrs. Esther Brunauer. Mrs. Mary D. Mack is shown at the extreme right.

conducted through the Alice Deal Junior High School of Washington, D. C., which resulted in the production of several pamphlets and leaflets prepared and illustrated by the students themselves-a project which it is hoped to extend to schools in other parts of the country; (5) progress in the development of films on educational reconstruction and educational exchange, in cooperation with UNESCO and the U.S. film industry; and (6) plans for a pilot film project which it is hoped will involve both educational film groups and universities.

The group also discussed two other programs of major importance-plans to extend to audio-visual materials the present UNESCO Book Coupon Scheme, which helps to overcome the problems created by the existence of "hard" and "soft" currencies; and the UNESCo-sponsored audiovisual agreement, which now has been signed by 16 nations and which is designed to reduce or eliminate duties and quantitative restrictions on audio-visual materials related to education, science, and culture.

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isfactory basis. It is also clearly necessary to have a machinery by which the ideas which develop in the industry can be coordinated and channeled to UNESCO and the United Nations. One step in the process would seem to be the continuance and perhaps the expansion and the adequate staffing of Miss Loy's committee. The con

tinuation of Mogens Skot-Hansen in Hollywood as representative of the United Nations and also of UNESCO would seem to be desirable. In this manner UNESCO and the National Commission could be kept informed of developments in the field of motion pictures which are relevant to that program. It would perhaps be well also to provide even more complete representation on the National Commission from the motion-picture field than we have at present. I feel certain that early progress can be made on all of these matters.

Let me make it very clear that what we had in mind in our visit to Hollywood and what the people throughout the industry had in mind is not the preparation of propaganda films telling about UNESCO and its activities. What we had in mind. was that the industry, although it might make an occasional documentary film concerning UNESCO, or the United Nations, would be concerned primarily with actually carrying out through the medium of motion pictures the basic objective of UNESCO to educate the peoples of the world in the ways of peace by increasing understanding of one another and appreciation of the great principles which lie at the basis of a peaceful world. This means that any feature film should be considered, before it is actually produced, in the light of whether the impact which it would deliver upon the public of this country and of other countries would be an impact which left a result conducive to the strengthening or to the weakening of the forces working for a peaceful world.

It is quite clear in everyone's mind that neither propaganda, in the ordinary meaning of that term, nor the subsidy of unprofitable ventures is concerned in the program we are now engaged in developing.