BOOK DECLARED OBSCENE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24901, 14 June 1946, Page 7

BOOK DECLARED OBSCENE

AUSTRALIAN JUDGE’S FINDING PUBUSHERS’ APPEAL DISMISSED (Rec. 9.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 13. Stating that certain pages in the novel “We Were the Hats,” by Lawson Glassop, were “just plain filth," Mr Justice Studdert, in the Appeal Court to-day, found that the book was an obscene publication. He dismissed the appeal by the publishers, Angus and Robertson, Ltd., against the conviction and fine of £lO imposed on the company in the Central Court on April 24 for having published an obscene book. Mr Justice Studdert said he believed that if the offending elements were removed the book’s value as a war story and a novel would be increasedThe passages relating to the siege of Tobruk achieved great heights in literary art. It was greatly to be deplored that the author, who had no need to rely upon pornography or blasphemy to hold the. attention of his readers, thought it necessary or desirable to do both. The most objectionable part of the book described the reading in a cave by a soldier to his mates of three plainly obscene stories from an American publication.

Field-Marshal Count Terauchi, the former Japanese Commander-in-Chief in South-east Asia, died at Johore from a cerebral hemorrhage.— Singapore, June 13.