Mr. FLOOD. In other words, the Ukraine national independence movement in the United States-and I suppose that is true of all nationalistic splinter groups in the United States-want you to broadcast programs behind the iron curtain, encouraging revolution and rebellion in the Ukraine, and to raise the standard against the established Soviet Government; is that it? Mr. KOHLER. Yes, sir. Mr. FLOOD. That places you up against a delicate international problem? Mr. KOHLER. It does, indeed, sir. REACTION OF OTHER NATIONALS Mr. FLOOD. And that is true, I suppose, in other areas as well? Mr. KOHLER. That has been true, I would say, with respect to the Ukrainian programs. There has recently been a movement among Croatian émigrés in this country asking for an independent Croatian program. There has been a certain amount from the Slovaks. Mr. FLOOD. And the Hungarians also? Mr. KOHLER. No, sir; we have no difficulty there. The Hungarians inside Europe seem very happy about our programs. Mr. FLOOD. Is the Hungarian-American Federation satisfied with our program? Mr. KOHLER. Yes, sir. Mr. FLOOD. What about the Polish organizations-the Polish National Alliance; the Polish-American Federation? Mr. KOHLER. We have had no serious trouble there. They all seem to be behind our programs. There has been a division within the ranks of the Polish exiles in this country and I think either side of that controversy could have a better approach to the Voice of America, but we have had no difficulty there. Mr. FLOOD. Is it the policy, in your thinking, of the Voice of America, as far as you are identified with policy, to use the facilities of the Voice of America for the purpose of inciting rebellion within the geographic boundaries of a national sovereign power? Mr. KOHLER. It is not, sir. Mr. FLOOD. Why not? Mr. KOHLER. There are a great many reasons. First of all, we are the instrument of the foreign policy of the United States and it is my understanding that it is not the foreign policy of the United States, at the moment, to stir up rebellions. I will say in the same breath that we do not hesitate, indeed we make a regular practice of appealing to the national cultural, spiritual traditions of the peoples who have a background of independence. We inevitably do that by speaking their own language. That, indeed, is one of the reasons why we are addressing the splinter groups inside the Soviet Union in their own language. We remind them of their own glorious traditions. We remind them of their own history. We remind them of their own literature, in cases where they have been suppressed by the Soviet regime. Mr. FLOOD. Is it the policy of the Voice of America to lash out in vitriolic, violent, direct criticism of the methods, conduct, philosophy of government of any foreign nation of any kind, any place? Mr. KOHLER. Well, sir, we speak our mind about the Soviet regime without much hesitation. At the same time, we have not adopted the violent and vicious language of our opponent, in that sense. We are a little more dignified as well as a little more convincing, I trust. RENTAL OF BBC FACILITIES Mr. FLOOD. Going back to page 508 of the justifications, I want to ask you about this. You say you are paying $300,000 for the rental of BBC facilities. As you paying the British $300,000 a year in dollars for renting their facilities. Mr. KOHLER. Yes, sir. Mr. FLOOD. Why are you not using counterpart funds and making that a bookkeeping fund? Mr. WILBER. There is a preclusion in the agreement. Mr. FLOOD. What agreement? Mr. WILBER. In the Mutual Aid Settlement Agreement of March 27, 1946, against this use for administrative expenses in any form. COMPARISON WITH COMMERCIAL FACILITIES Mr. FLOOD. How do your figures on operation generally compare with United States commercial facilities for operation of a program of an opposite number? Mr. KOHLER. We are much below domestic costs. I will say at the same time that we owe some of that to the fine cooperation that we get from the domestic industry and that we get from the owners of proprietary rights. For example, we use perhaps 3,500 items which would have commercial value of many millions of dollars, which are given to us by those who have the proprietary rights; that is, copyright holders, unions, guilds, authors' representatives, American Federation of Musicians, American Guild of Musicians, American Federation of Radio Artists, the Stage Hands Union, the American Society of Composers, the Theater Protective Association, broadcast music, authors, and publishers-they all give us a lot of rights. So I would have to admit that we receive a great deal in the way of contributions from the American public and from the domestic radio industry which helps our program and if we had to pay for them would make our costs higher. But at the same time we are delivering programs at a produced cost of about $400 per half-hour, whereas even a sustaining program without great commercial interest on the domestic radio network would cost about $3,000. INCREASED OPERATING COST OF OVERSEAS RADIO FACILITIES Mr. FLOOD. On page 501 of the justifications you have listed, under operation of radio facilities, a whole list of stations and operations outside continental United States. I notice that there are increases, sometimes material. Why do you have those increases, for instance, for Honolulu, $46,000; Munich, $260,000; Manila, $78,000; Tangier, $256,000; Salonika, $191,000? Mr. KOHLER. Mr. Herrick can answer that in great detail. I want to say generally that it reflects the increased operations of those bases, because of additional programing that we are doing under the supple mental appropriation and in one or two cases it represents the new staffing of relay bases overseas. Mr. Herrick can give you the details. Mr. FLOOD. I do not want the details. Mr. KOHLER. That is the answer. We are doing more; we are operating more radio facilities. RUSSIAN RADIO ACTIVITY IN IRAN Mr. FLOOD. This may not be the production program and you are primarily the production manager but, if you can tell me, what happened to you in Iran and what are the Russians doing there? Mr. KOHLER. I am not competent to answer that, it being a political question. I think we temporarily simply suffered from some local political shift. I do not know the situation now resulting from the recent assassination, but their attitude remains friendly and I hope in due course we will be back on relays in Iran. Mr. FLOOD. What are the Russians doing in Iran? Mr. FLOOD. Do they have broadcasts relayed there? Mr. KOHLER. No, sir; they do not and they never did have. That is one of the reasons why in some respects they could claim favoritism was being shown to us, because they were not relayed over the local Persian radio stations. Mr. FLOOD. Did they ever ask for such advantages, if you know? Mr. KOHLER. Not that I know of, sir. I just do not know the answer to that. Mr. HULTEN. The Communist Party is outlawed there and therefore they would not make such a request. Mr. FLOOD. I know that the national party is outlawed, but I mean the Russian Soviet Government itself never asked for any facilities comparable to our rights and usages, as far as you know, for relays there? Mr. KOHLER. So far as I know. Mr. BARRETT. Of course, they do not have to. Their own transmitters are so close that they can blast a strong signal there. CRITICISM OF VOICE OF AMERICA Mr. FLOOD. I know that, but I wanted expressly to find out if they had asked for such facilities rights. I do not know whether you know it or not, but this program is being criticized, because it is being poorly and badly administered, and the whole operation is being conducted at an administrative level in such a stupid, inefficient, and ineffective manner as to be a waste of time and of dollars, at least of American dollars that are invested in it. We are not getting our money's worth out of it. That applies to the Voice of America, and that opinion holds-I do not concur in it, but at least there is such an opinion-that includes the Voice of America, not so much production, it seems, as policy and planning; but to a certain extent it includes production, and that apparently must include you, if you are the production chief. What is the matter with your shop down there, if anything is? What do you think is the matter with it? Mr. KOHLER. I do not say it is perfect, but I will say that the criticism is wholly unjustified and it is usually based on a lack of information, or on misinformation, by people who have not taken the trouble to look into it. I have no objection whatsoever to Monday morning quarterbacking, providing the man has seen the game or knows what the game is that is being played. I am very proud of the staff that we have in New York. They are, I will say, the only professional international broadcasters in the United States. No one else could do international broadcasting without them. They are a competent staff and they are getting better. As we get more money, under the supplemental, we have gone into a recruiting program. We are not operating on a shoestring any more. At least, we won't be when we get that staff in and get them trained. And, above all, they know the target audience. In terms of personnel and this international audience, you have a problem of meeting three standards. First of all, you want to find a man who knows the medium, who knows radio, and how to do a good radio show. In our case you have to combine that with a knowledge of the target area and you have to combine that with absolutely idiomatic, linguistic writing and speaking ability. Generally speaking, we have been fortunate in being able to get people who do combine those three branches of knowledge and we do not put a program on the air which is not especially designed and tailored for the target audience to which it goes. We have had a great many suggestions, and some of them have been good. I am glad to have suggestions from anyone who has a valid opinion upon it, and many of the suggestions have been good for us. Generally speaking, the people who make suggestions know nothing about the target audience and are projecting assumptions with respect. to, let us say, Russians, Poles, or Chinese based on what they know about the American audience. APPLICATION OF SUGGESTIONS Mr. FLOOD. Let me interrupt you at that point. Are you getting regular suggestions and complaints, advice and ideas from the chief of our missions throughout the world with reference to the nature and quality of your Voice of America broadcasts, suggestions as to how the broadcasts can be tailored or improved with reference to the local idiom and problems? Mr. KOHLER. On practically a daily basis. Mr. FLOOD. Are you paying any attention to them? Are you doing anything about it? Or are you just filing them? Mr. KOHLER. They are our guides to our program, actually. Mr. FLOOD. I am sure of that. Do you have any evidence that in the course of the past calendar year your Voice of America has received and acted upon suggestions from our chiefs of missions, or from other responsible Americans, or other foreign friendly suggestions? Mr. KOHLER. We certainly have, in terms of thousands. Mr. FLOOD. Do your files contain any evidence that your answers are correct? Mr. KOHLER. Yes; they do. I cannot pretend to keep up with the entire flow of material from the field that comes into our office. It is in terms of thousands. Mr. FLOOD. Do you have a section in your office devoted to that kind of work-receiving and evaluating and rearranging your programs in conformance, if they are acceptable, with these suggestions for special targets? Mr. KOHLER. Yes. We have first the processing unit, the overseas servicing section of which we hope to have in a matter of weeks, who receive suggestions which go immediately to the language desk. Another copy goes to the evaluation section, so there they can be combined with reactions from other sources. Mr. FLOOD. What is the atmosphere as far as you are personally concerned, and your people, with reference to cooperation, liaison, appreciation, and willingness to accept and act upon suggestions for tailoring problems that are reasonable, proper, and intelligent? Mr. KOHLER. We ask for it. If at any time a nation fails to monitor every day, or send in program suggestions, or send in foreign-language papers and publications and program suggestions, we invariably ask them "Please send more; please monitor and tell us." There flow across my own desk every day a dozen telegrams from various field offices suggesting we practice this or that and not practice something else. When it comes to my desk it will have a notation saying, "Done," and signed by the desk chief. Mr. FLOOD. Do you consider this a major part of your operation-to take advantage of this sort of information and suggestions from the missions in the field and the State Department? Mr. KOHLER. I do. Mr. FLOOD. I am glad to hear that. I certainly have a very high regard for the attitude and position of the missions, and especially chiefs of missions, with reference to what we are doing in all phases of international relations, and right now particularly this one. Mr. KOHLER. I cannot more agree. You may recall I am a fieldman myself and I spent most of the last 20 years in missions abroad. ADEQUACY OF JOB PERFORMANCE Mr. FLOOD. If I knew that I had forgotten about it. I am glad to hear it. Are you satisfied with the job you are doing up there? Do you know of anyone else that could do this better than you think you are doing it? Mr. KOHLER. In all modesty, I do not know of anyone who could do it better; no, sir. Mr. FLOOD. Do you think that you are doing a reasonably creditable job in the circumstances with the money you have, with the cooperation you are receiving from the Government and from the Appropriations Committee, from the Congress, and from the general public interested in this kind of an activity? Are you getting all the help and cooperation you think that you should have from Washington? Mr. KOHLER. Generally speaking, yes. I always want more. I do not want ever to use the word "satisfied" in terms of the job that I am doing, or the job that our staff is doing, because we do not expect ever to be satisfied, but we are doing our best, and we think it is good. 81707-51-56 |