HR Williamson, BBC “Switch Censor”, 1941

Posted: December 21st, 2021 | No Comments »

Looking through the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham recently I noted the various speakers on the rather short-lived Chinese service of the BBC Far Eastern Service during the war (the one involving Orwell, Empson, Priestley, Mulk Raj Anand, Tambimuttu etc). It lasted only months really and ended with the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. It broadcast for a time in both Cantonese and Mandarin and used many (at the time) well-known Chinese in Britain including the journalist Hsiao Ch’ien (Xiao Chen) andthe playwrite Hsiung Shih-I (Xiong Shiyi). Hsiung was hired several times to write and read what the BBC called the ‘Kuo Yue News Commentary’ (by which they mean Guoyu, standard Chinese or putonghua).

The BBC correspondence, archived at Caversham, informs SI Hsiung that he should deliver the talk, both in Chinese and English to Broadcasting House in London marked “Urgent” for Rev. Dr. Williamson, the newly appoiinted “Switch Censor” – the person with the power to halt the broadcast (hitting the several second delay) if the speaker deviates from the agreed text. Interesting in this sense as 1) all talks during the went rhrough the censors for obvious reasons and, by and large, the changes are recorded, discussed and invariably minor; 2) in this case a fluent English and Chinese speaker would be required 3) i believe the programmes were sent to Hong Kong and Singapore for re-boradcast.

And so to the Rev. Dr. Williamson, the appointed man for the job at the BBC Chinese Service. Henry Raymond Williamson (1883-1966) of the Baptist Mission was an at the time quite well-known missionary in China, an accomplished Chinese scholar and foreign secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS). Originally from Rochdale, Lancashire, Williamson had apparently, ‘sensed a call to China’ as a young man and was stationed in Shansi (Shanxi) from 1908 to 1926 doing educational and famine relief work as well as presumably attempting to save a few souls. He was actually nominated as a professor of Chinese studies at the University of London but preferred to remain in China and, from 1926 to 1938, was director of the Whitewright Institute and Museum in Tsinan (Jinan), Shantung (Shandong). He was appointed China field secretary of the BMS in 1932 and in 1938 was recalled to London as foreign secretary. He wrote a couple of books, a History of the British Baptists in China and another entitled China Among the Nations (1943) as well as a Teach Yourself Chinese guide (1947).

Williamson’s official bio doesn’t mention his time as a “switch censor” at the BBC Far Eastern Service and it’s not clear if he ever knew or met Hsiung or if he ever hit the switch!

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