Authority and the individual

IN July 1947 Sir William Haley, Director General of the BBC, announced the establish ment of an annual series of broadcast lectures, to be known as the Reith Lectures.

Each year an acknowledged authority in a particular field, sociology, literature, history, public affairs, or economics, is invited to undertake some study or original research on a given subject and to give listeners the results in a series of broadcasts. Such broadcasts are intended, not only to be the peak of the BBC's effort each year in the field of series talks, but also to become a valuable national institution adding to the pool of knowledge and stimulating thought through an ever widening circle.

Speaking of the decision by the Governors of the BBC to name the lectures after Lord Reith, Sir William said: "In the history of British broadcasting there is one name that stands above all others. What the people of this country owe to the vision of the man who first guided British broadcasting has yet to be adequately assessed. His conception of what broadcasting should strive after, of the ideals it should serve and the standards it should attain was one of the great social acts of our time. Nothing could be more appro priate than that the most serious effort the BBC has yet made to use broadcasting in the field of thought should be linked with the name of its founder.