Summary heading

This series contains typewritten scripts of news and current affairs related talks by prominent news commentators and broadcast on ABC radio.

Function and purpose

The series contains the scripts of several thousand talk presentations, many from World War Two. All commentaries and talks presented during the war period are marked as passed by the State Publicity Censor.

The scripts deal with major news issues from 1931 to 1951, nationally and internationally. Speakers and news commentators the ABC used include John Curtin, William Morris Hughes, Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs, Sir Charles Joseph Andrew Moses, Richard James Fildes Boyer, Professor Julius Stone, Kurt Offenburg, Dr C E W Bean, Professor Kenneth Hamilton Bailey, William McMahon Ball, Dr Hermann David Black, Dr Kurt Singer, Walter George Keith Duncan, etc. The subjects of the presentations, as well as WWII European topics, include the effects of nuclear war, Indonesian foreign affairs, the Commonwealth of Nations, Chinese politics, the war in Korea and Australia's internal political and economic systems.

System of arrangement and control

Control symbols:

Most of SP369/2 is approximately ordered by the surname and initial of the speaker, with an annual prefix, and a suffix for the number of the script among the speakers that year. An example of this control symbol format is: 1941/ABEND H/1. This is the control symbol for the first talk given by Hallett Abend in 1941.

However, control symbols for talks from the ‘world and national affairs’ section in box 1 are in the format: WORLD/RUSSO P/1939/1. Control symbols for talks in the 1940-1945 ‘General talks’ section in box 1 are in the format: GENERAL/1940/HUGHES W/1.

Arrangement:

While the intended arrangement from box 2 seems to be by year; then alphabetically by the surname of the speaker; then by date of the talk, this order is very rough. In practice there are often more than one alphabetical run each year; moreover, some items are simply not in chronological/alphabetical order.

Box 1 includes, as well as news commentary talks, a few general talks (like those in SP300/1 and SP369/1). The sections in box 1 are, very roughly:

• News commentary and general talks 1931-1939 (Moses to Paynter)
• World and National Affairs 1933-1935 (Charteris to Wood) and 1937-1939 (Brierley to Russo). In this section, sequences of talks seem intended to be kept together, even those spanning over years.
• General talks 1940-1945 (Hughes to King).
• News commentary talks 1939 by Duncan
• News commentary talks 1940 (Andrews to Black).

Examples of the arrangement of other boxes are:

Box 2:

• 1940 news commentary scripts – alphabetical by surname from D to T
• 1940 news commentary scripts by John Archibald McCallum
• 1940 news commentary scripts by Professor S H Roberts
• 1940 – ‘this week of war’ series (by the Department of Information)
• 1941 news commentary scripts arranged alphabetically by surname from A to F
• 1941 News commentary scripts arranged alphabetically by surname from A to B

Box 3:the order is from 1941 talks by Black H D to 1941 talks by Russo, Peter. However, within this range, the talks by Gould, Randall, range from 1939 to 1941.

Box 4: The 1941 talks start from Shepherd, Jack and range to Stokes, Henry; then Robert, Professor S H; then from Stokes, Henry to Wood, Dr GL; then ‘This Week of War’. The 1942 talks start from Bailey, Prof. K H an range to Kirke, B W; then from Andrew, Dr John to Bean, C E W.

Box 5 is arranged from 1942 talks by Black, H D to 1942 talks by Wood, Dr G L; then has 1942 talks by Mathew, Theo.

Finding Aids

Relatively few of this series' talks have been listed at item level onto our 'RecordSearch' database of Commonwealth Government records references. A paper item listing is available in the Reading Room of our Chester Hill, NSW, Office, and can be viewed during the days the Reading Room is open.

Series history

The records in this series had been kept mixed with general talk scripts now in series SP369/1. However, in 1955 as a result of a research request, ABC staff separated the news commentaries, talks on international affairs and 'Notes on the News', later transferring them to the National Archives of Australia as SP369/2.

Sources

Administrative information

Archives file number: RWS50/4/19