w instrument of tyranny. The British
Broadcasting Company holds in England a monopoly and is to a
considerable extent under Government control. It is possible to
forbid advertising programmes because the costs are met by a tax of
10 sh. a year levied on the possession of a radio set.

In an article called "The Unseen Catastrophe" (January 28,
1928) Gilbert wrote:

Suppose you had told some of the old Whigs, let alone Liberals,
that there was an entirely new type of printing press, eclipsing all
others; and that as this was to be given to the King, all printing
would henceforth be government printing. They would be roaring like
rebels, or even regicides, yet that is exactly what we have done with
the whole new invention of wireless. Suppose it were proposed that
the king's officers should search all private houses to make sure
there were no printing presses, they would be ready for a new
revolution. Yet that is exactly what is proposed for the protection
of the government monopoly of broadcasting. . . . There is really no
protection against propaganda . . . being entirely in the hands of
the government; except indeed, the incredible empty-headedness of
those who govern. . . . On that sort of thing at least, we are all
Socialists now. It is wicked to nationalize mines or railroads; but
we lose no time in nationalizing tongues and talk . . . we might once
have used, and we shall now never use, the twentieth century science
against the nineteenth century hypocrisy. It was prevented by a
swift, sweeping and intolerant State monopoly; a monster suddenly
swallowing all rivals, alternatives, discussions, or delays, with one
snap of its gigantic jaws. That is what I mean by saying, "We cannot
see the monsters that overcome us." But I suppose that even Jonah,
when once he was swallowed, could not see the whale.

In the autumn of 1932 Gilbert was first asked to undertake a series
of radio talks for the B.B.C. Every one seems agreed that he was an
extraordinary success. Letters from Broadcasting House are full of
such remarks as: "You do it admirably," "quite superb at the
microphone." In one his work is called "unique." Radio was now added
to all his other activities during the four years he still had to
live. Dorothy kept a diary in which she noted in one year the giving
of as many as forty lectures, and entered reminders of engagements of
the most varying kinds