"A Supplementary Report Covering the Activities in Mexico City of its Counsel" (September 6, 1933)

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A SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT COVERING THE ACTIVITIES IN MEXICO CITY OF ITS COUNSEL Submitted to the National Committee on Education by Radio, September 6, 1933 By Armstrong Perry After receiving instructions from the Committee to represent it at the North and Central American Radio Conference in Mexico City, I attended several meetings of the committees organized by the United States Department of State to prepare for this Conference. The Committee was represented in preliminary meetings also by Dr. Tracy F. Tyler, Commander T. A. M. Craven, and Mr. Horace L. Lohnes, and these gentlemen informed mo concerning meetings which I did not attend. The topic most discussed at these mootings was the proposed widening of the band of frequencies for broadcasting. The commercial broadcasters demanded, and fought for, frequencies between 160 and 220 kilocycles. They wore supported in their demands by the Radio Manufacturers’ Association. The discussion showed that the commercial broadcasters wantod these additional channels in order to increase the sale of time for advertising, and that the manufacturers wanted broadcasting on the new frequencies because the radio listeners would have to spend approximately half a billion dollars for new apparatus if they were to hear programs on the proposed channels. The proposal was defeated by the ’’mobile group”, which included the United States Navy and Army, shipowners and aviation interests. This group objected to giving up the channels because, it was claimed, there wore no other channels in which the mobile services could be accommodated without prohibitive expense or loss of efficiency. Commander Craven, on behalf of the National Committeo, presented a compromise plan which although well received was not adopted. Shortly before tho date for the opening of the Conference, a confidential letter from the Department of State gave some information as to the position of the official delegation on the matter of widening the broadcast band. The position of the delegation on tho matter of allocating frequencies to the different countries was never made known to me by the delegation and, so far as I know, no person or group outside the conference was informed by the delegation at any time. It appeared to be an official secret, revealod only through leakage. Several days before tho opening of tho Conference I was approached by an official of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad who wanted to sell me space in an air-cooled car in which the official delegation was to make the trip to Mexico City. I reserved space. Then I was notified by this railroad official that the Department of State had notified the railroad that the car was to be reserved for the official delegation exclusively and I was offered space in another car. I inquired of the Department of State and was Informed that the car was reserved for officials exclusively and that all space was taken. The railroad official reserved space for mo in another car, which was entirely satisfactory to me. After the train left St. L^uis three representatives of commercial radio corpora¬ tions moved into the car reserved for government officials exclusively, and wont through to Mexico City with the official delegation. I arrived in Mexico City on the morning of July 8 and had a room at the Regis Hotel, whicji was the headquarters of the American delegation, until tho morning of July 10, when I moved to a house selected from several recommended by a member of the staff of tho American Embassy. I had a room there during the rest of my stay in Mexico.