TYPICALLY AUSTRALIAN YET HELD OBSCENE

Chronicle (Levin), 26 April 1946, Page 2

TYPICALLY AUSTRALIAN YET HELD OBSCENE

SYDNEY,, April 25. ProlestS tiro- bcing •imicle about the PoJice Depurlmenl Ts actiou in Jauncb.iiig an obseemly canipaign aguinst l,awson Glassop's book ' W (J Are The Rats/' a' story of jA.I.F. meli besiegcd in Tobruk. . in the Cehtral Hunimons L'ourt yesterduy, i\lr. Farriugton, S.M., hutding that passages m Ihe book were. obsccne, iniposed a line of £10 with eostfS 8s on the jmblishers, Augus and Robertsou/Ltd. The book has been in circulation since June, 1944, 'and 10,000 eopies have been distributed. One of the- objections of- the police was to the use of the adjeetive "bJoody. " The cliiof police witness was a sergeant who adniitted under cross exainination tbat he was not sure whether Shakespeare 's lirst name was Wiiliam. He had not fead Bernard. Sluiw and had never hcard of Oliaueer and Byron as wrirers. He said he was a membcr of the viee squad and part of his duty was to look for obscene publications. To questious by the magistrate, witness said he had read.some of JShakespeare but did not remembet" BpttOQf'sf speech from Midsunrmer Nights Dream*. In further cross exainatiou by defend■iug ■coinisel, witness said -he. 4M. not • rcmembei' ahy..of NoeJ O.o\vaf"d 's, worlcs aiid " did" ' not know that the wdrd "bloody" frequently oCpu'rred,' iii Coward's lilm "In Which We Serve. He did not kiiow the meaning of the word "pornographic " but , t.houglijt -it meant " poor type of literature." Giving his decision ' the iiiagistrate said: " tu my opinion the matter published on two pages is dccidedly obscene. It has been suggested pj the defenee that it is the conversation th'at went on in the» caves of Tobruk but it was of such a nature that it "bblioved llie'publi'shers to censor it or exclse it from .publichtion/.' .