The publicity bureau

WE have already drawn attention to the fact that at its last meeting, the Punjab Legislative Council went back upon the decision of its predecessor and sanctioned a demand made by the government for the establishment of a bureau of information. We have gone through the debate that took place on the subject with the utmost care, but have not come across a single argument in favour of the proposal that we can consider either new or convincing. No one denies that a certain amount of publicity work is essential on the part of the government under modern conditions, when persuasion tends more and more to take the place of compulsion and the policy and measures of the government tend more and more to rest on opinion. What we cannot for the life of us see is why this work cannot or should not be carried on by the departments of the administration themselves. To say that a trained agency is better in this respect than the Secretariat is to forget that the Secretariat itself has or ought to have all the training that is necessary in this matter. After all, all that is needed is that wrong statements should be contradicted, fallacious arguments combated and exposed and the policy of the government explained. What special training does this work require — training which the average member of the Civil Service does not possess? It was said on behalf of the government that “formal resolutions and communiques do not accomplish the desired object, namely, to place before the public a reasoned statement of the policy of the government in its different departments.” We fail to see why resolutions and communiques do not or cannot accomplish this object.