At Home & Abroad

> In Nazi Germany tuning in on foreign broadcasts has always been frowned on; for the last three weeks it has been treason. But right up to zero hour German listeners to U. S. short-wave stations kept writing in, asking for pictures of Benny Goodman, requesting that their names be read over the air. Last week, to protect innocent German necks, NBC's international short-wave division discontinued its weekly German Mail Bag program, halted the flow of pictures of Benny Goodman to Reich homes.

> Because of amateur radio's deadly possibilities as a medium for espionage, by last week almost three-fourths of the world's radio "hams" had been ordered off the air. For the 50,000 U. S. hams thus left virtually talking to themselves, the American Radio Relay League, to which most good hams belong, last week advised: 1) all international contacts should be confined to experimental or incidental topics; 2) no news should be relayed from one country to another; 3) refrain from discussing topics which might have a military significance.

> Over the frequency of Warsaw's Radio Station 1, as German forces surrounded the city, came strange, un-Pole-like reports: "The sky is glowing from scores of huge fires raging beyond control. . . . Complete anarchy prevails. . . . Bands of robbers began plundering stores and breaking into private apartments. . . . Many used the moment to settle political grudges, and the city is filled with rumors of assassinations. . . . Poles feel themselves betrayed by their Allies and tonight demoralization is spreading rapidly. The fall of Warsaw is expected tomorrow." Because of the announcer's accent, and because Warsaw 1, unheard for several hours, had been thought bombed, many listeners to this broadcast smelled a Nazi. Sure enough, later that evening Warsaw's Radio Station 2 came on, warned Poles against broadcasts purporting to come from Station 1, which had been disabled; assured its listeners that Warsaw still stood; sought volunteers for trenching and barricading; switched to Polish music.

> In Britain, where at the first crack of war all transmitters but two were shut down, British Broadcasting Corp. resumed its normal schedules, announced that the Government would impose no penalty on a British subject for listening to foreign stations.

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