These stage-managed messages to the West Indies are testament to Britain's reliance on its colonies in WWII.

In 1943, equipped with new transmitters and extra staff, the Corporation began regular transmission of its series, Calling the West Indies. The program's characteristic mixture of personal messages, warming music, and uplifting tales of dedicated war-work was featured in a 1944 cinema newsreel, West Indies Calling:

The British Honduran Forestry Unit (BHFU) was a civilian body of forestry workers who came from British Honduras to Scotland in two contingents to help support the war effort during the Second World War. 900 workers came, the first 500 arriving in September 1941, and were dispersed to camps in Traprain Law, East Lothian, Duns, Scottish Borders, and Kirkpatrick Fleming, Dumfries and Galloway.