'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎88v] (176/314)

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articles only if they had been especially requested, two
strong criticisms of the Editor appeared in small provin
cial newspapers. Perhaps we have not heard the last
of the enterprising " child
(c) Perspective. The first issue of this magazine has
now appeared. A good deal of difficulty was experien
ced in finding a press capable of producing it to the re
quired standard and with the required speed. But the
first issue seems quite satisfactory, though a criticism has
been voiced that the qover is too light for the contents.
The tours undertaken by the Editor of this magazine
have resulted in a large number of well-known figures
agreeing to contribute and no fears are now entertained
that there will be difficulty about the standard or the
number of contributions.
(d) The Bugle. The material for the first issue of The
Bugle proved none too easy to obtain. The target was
to have been in particular troops in India, and in general
England, America and the Commonwealth: for such an
audience articles were required to be written in a very
facile and easy style and the make-up of the magazine
had to have no trace of amateur work. Difficulties were
experienced in obtaining the required standard either in
diction or in make-up. Then news was received of the
end of hostilities and the probable withdrawal of large
sections of the public for whom the magazine was inten
ded. It was therefore decided to abandon the idea
entirely of producing an all-English magazine of this
type. It was later decided that in view of the work
which had already been undertaken in the production of
this magazine, one single edition of The Bugle should
appear, and this, will be ready by the middle of October.
(e) Onward; The first issue of this new magazine for
women is expected in September, dated October. There
has been a very good response to requests fer contribu
tions and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu has written a foreword
.for it.
(/) India. We had fallen a good deal behind in the
production of this magazine but have now managed to
catch up and the October issue will be on time, as
already indicated. More Chinese is being introduced
into it.
($) Map of India’s Resources. This has provoked favour
able comment and enquiries have been received as to the
possibility of producing a similar map devoted entirely
to food. There is also a possibility of producing by
rotogravure in collaboration with P. I. O., posters suitable
for schools etc., on geographical or historical subjects.
[h) Two pamphlets will be ready early in October:
What's in an Indian Name, by Col. Gifford, which deals
with the meaning of names, both of people and places
in India, and Studies in Russian History by Nicholas Ruskin,
reprinting a series of popular articles first published in
Soviet Union News.
0. SHAIPU& & AL NAEIfe. The causes of the drop in
sales of Shaipur and Al Nafir have been referred to in
various places in the course of this Report. It will be
useful to summarise them here:
(а) Lack of money to spend on so-called luxury
articles.
(б) Increased competition from new magazines started
both by indigenous publishers (this applies more parti
cularly to .4/ Nafir) and by foreign publishers.
(c) The excellent colour work of some competing
magazines produced at great expense and sold at much
below cost price.
(d) The small number of themes near to the Persian
or Iraqi heart: this is largely due to the increasing
difficulty of finding stocks of fresh pictures of the
countries concerned.
(e) Difficulties and delays in distribution (this app..us
more especially to Iran).
(/) The soft-pedalling of sex-appeal.
To offset this, the magazine can perhaps be produced
on better paper with an attractive colour inset A small map or other image enclosed within the margin of a larger map, map sheet, or larger image; or papers placed inside a book or archival volume. , probably
of an Indian painting; and it may prove necessary to keep
prices down in view of the cheap and sometimes free
distribution of publicity material by other countries.
Indeed, an important lesson for India is the amount of
money foreign countries are prepared to spend on well-
produced publicity material.
10. DUNYA — a bilingual magazine in separate English Rmsian,
English - Roman Urdu, English-■ Persian, Urdu-Pushtu and
English-Hindi editions.
The criticism made in the last Progress Report that
Dunya contains too many war pictures will automatically
cease now that hostilities are over. The seven p age s
devoted to the Indian Armed Forces have been cut at .e
request of Directorate of Public Relations, G.H.Q. (India)
to four, and it is hoped to devote most of these to
resettlement and reconstruction schemes.
The Hindi edition of Dunya referred to in Progress
Report No. 18, B, 10, has been accorded a warm welcome.
The recent tour made by the General Editor (India )
of the Publications Division serves to show how popular
Dunya would be throughout the whole of India if a
proper large-scale distribution organization can be set
on foot. The sale of one copy in each village of India
automatically means a print order of half a million copies.
At the same time experiments have proved that simple
as is the reading-matter of Dunya it needs simplifying
still more before it will be a completely suitable vehicle
for villages. It has already been mentioned how
excellent a medium it will be also for Far Eastern
distribution and investigations into the possibilities of
Chinese, Tibetan, Malayan and Burmese editions have
already made a good deal of progress.