Cultural diplomacy and the British Council: 1934 — 1939

Abstract

In November, 1934, the British Council for Relations with Other Countries was founded on the initiative of the Foreign Office. The decision to establish a body specifically designed to conduct cultural propaganda overseas on behalf of the British Government was, perhaps, the most constructive peacetime response to the growing realization that more positive measures were required to counter the detrimental effects of aggressive foreign propaganda upon British interests and prestige. The British Council, which continued to operate under the auspices of the Foreign Office, offered a new and alternative approach to the traditional conduct of foreign affairs: the practice of cultural diplomacy. It was believed that cultural propaganda — broadly interpreted as the dissemination of British ideals and beliefs in a general rather than specifically political form – would not only serve to enhance British influence and prestige abroad, but would also effectively further the wider ideals of international peace and understanding.

The British Institute of Florence and the British Council in Fascist Italy: from Harold E. Goad to Ian G. Greenlees, 1922–1940

“…The rise of anti-British propaganda first appeared at the end of the First World War, and stemmed in particular from Germany. Hit hard by defeat in the war and its treatment in the Treaty of Versailles, Germany aimed to damage Britain’s image and prestige abroad, as well as undermining its commercial interests (Taylor 1978, 244–264; Taylor 1981, 11–56).…”

“…One of the main reasons both North America and the United Kingdom had to undertake this type of national advertising was the danger presented by the clear and well-structured cultural propaganda campaigns organised by the Western totalitarian regimes, devised with the aim of promoting their own political, economic and commercial interests through the creation of zones of influence, as happened in Latin America, for example (Taylor 1978, 257–259; Kraske 1985, 4–38; Arndt 2005, 49–74). This region played an important role at the time in absorbing American and British investments in the financial sector, and was therefore a fruitful market for US and UK businesses.…”

“…And secondly, considerable numbers of migrants from both Germany and Italy were arriving in the continent. The direct consequence of this was the formation of communities that tended to establish subversive social and political orders, based on despotism and a lack of regard for key democratic principles (Taylor 1978, 259; Arndt 2005, 51–55).…”

“…To counteract this lack of ‘representation’ of Britain’s culture and civic and political ideas, the government had to work hard to create publicity on a sufficiently large scale to influence foreign public opinion, aiming to support the preservation of the nation’s prestige, politics and trade by ‘explaining’ British civilisation and policy (Taylor 1978, 249–251; Taylor 1981, 84–91). In the mid-1930s, employing a technique also borrowed by the US government, the BC took on the onerous task of tackling propaganda from totalitarian regimes in Europe and beyond without appearing to compete with them, which would have risked exacerbating the situation through an unproductive raising of nationalist feeling.…”

Projecting Britishness to Hong Kong: the British Council and Hong Kong House, nineteen-fifties to nineteen-seventies

“…In contrast to totalitarian propaganda, the aim of British Council ‘cultural propaganda’ was to promote good will and an appreciation of British culture and way of life among ‘those foreigners who were in a position to influence large numbers of their own people’ – in other words, it was ‘anything but a mass communication process’. Moreover, its goals were long‐term. In the words of John Press, a British councillor in Greece, India and Ceylon, the council supported a ‘profound movement that is taking place continuously and quietly – the coming and going of individuals to and from [Britain] to exchange ideas and to make life richer, better ordered and more varied here and throughout the world’.…”