'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎92r] (183/314)

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No decision can yet be taken as to whether it will
eventually be possible or desirable to reprint Perspective
in America, though copies on special paper were sent
early in October to Washington in order that the ques
tion might be examined.
There are certain minor technical details relating
to federal law in America which have to be complied
with before distribution on any scale can be commenced.
At the moment we are relying on a large mailing list
compiled by the Indian Information Office in Washing
ton for spreading the magazine before the intellectuals
of the country.
5. China
The Publicity Officer for China has been sent to
Chungking. He will be able to give us first hand reports
and reactions as to the value of India, and the decision
to start a Chinese edition of Dunya is being deferred until
thi/*^fficer can give us his advice on the matter.
0. far East:—
The opening up of Burma and Malaya is in progress.
Publicity Officers are being sent to both places; and their
instructions as far as this office is concerned are to contact
agents who might prove interested in the marketing of
magazines in English in the first instance; and secondly,
to look into the possibilities of producing magazines in
Far Eastern languages specially directed to certain
countries or certain communities in Burma and Malaya.
The visit of an officer to Burma brought back the
information that there appear to be good possibilities
for the sales of such magazines as Dunya, the Bugle and
India, if they were modified to meet local conditions.
10. British Commonwealth (excluding India)
The appointment of an Information Officer to
Australia will give us an opportunity of assessing the
^val "of material from India distributed in that country.
The Director of the Publications Division has
examined in England the possibility of distributing
material there. Material such as Indian Studies and
India 1945 might be suitable for the English market, the
latter particularly if it is produced in a form more to
the English taste. It has been suggested that before the
material is put on sale on a large scale, the experiment
should be tried for a few months of distributing a large
amount of free copies of material in English,- and this
proposal is being carefully examined. Meanwhile, United
Publications in England will be on sale at Messrs Luzac
Co., 46 Great Russell Street, London. A letter has also
been received from the Director, The Imperial Institute,
South Kensington, who has suggested that his Institute
should be regarded as the main channel for the distribu-
in England of material produced in India.
The fact, however, has become increasingly clear that
the material at present produced in English is not
completely suitable for England, probably unsuitable for
the British Commonwealth, and (except for Perspective
and some similar items), quite certainly not suitable for
America. The lack of a magazine or magazines to be
distributed in these parts of the world is being keenly
felt. The problems involved in such magazines are not
easy of solution, for the countries concerned are for the
most part used to “ slick ” journalism, elaborate and
expensive formats and a very high technical standard,
none of which is readily available in India as yet on a
cheap scale.
We have just seen an excellent reprint made in
Australia of a booklet originally produced by this office
on the Indian Army, Swords and Ploughshares
11. India:—
The number of our agents in the various cities of
India is gradually incresing and sales continue satis
factorily with small fluctuations. It seems that the time
has now come for a very strong drive to increase the
print orders of such magazines as Ajkal and Heydagf
Naunihal, especially as it seems that improved facilities
for production may be expected to become fairly rapidly
available.
There are hopful signs that the problem of rural
disribution is well on its way to solution: this
matter will be discussed under a separate heading,
“ Distribution ”.
B. PRODUCTION AND REACTIONS.
The hopes expressed in Progress Report No. 19 that the
difficulty of obtaining adequate printing facilities might end
soon after the close of hostilities have been confirmed
rather than disappointed in the past three months. In the
first place it seems likely that printing machinery will
become more rapidly available than was at first feared.
It is no exageration to say that this Division has worked
miracles with antique machinery and with old-fashioned
methods of composing and printing. The need foi
modernizing our own press can almost be described as
desperate, and there are hopes that the machinery so
urgently required will be found. Military and official
presses in certain numbers have been set up both in
India and the Middle East during the war; some of
this machinery has already come on to the market, and
though we were too late to obtain this, there are signs
that the supply is by no means exhausted.
In the second place, the prospect is opening up
before us of printing a good deal of our high-class pub
licity material on very modern photo litho offset
machines available to the Government. Work already
done by these machines has very considerably improved
the covers of Ajkal (Urdu and Hindi), Hey day! Naunihal
and has adorned the cover of Onward. Various colour
pictures and a calendar have also been produced