G.B.S. AND THR CENSOR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 587, 16 August 1909, Page 4

G.B.S. AND THR CENSOR.

Mr. Bernard Shaw, and the Censor of Plays aro again at loggerheads. Tlie- first., public performance of ; tho dramatist's latest work, a, little sltetch-'called 1 "Press Cuttings," was billed by the" Women's Suffrage' Society to. take place at tlio Court Theatre 1 on July 0; but, greatly, .to Mr. Shaw's wrath, censor has banned it. .' ' ••. : ' ■..■-, ■' :' "A few weeks ago," wrote Mr. Shaw in a; letter to. "The "The Censor's Kevenge," which appeared on Saturday,, "onfr of the most popular of London, actors and'managers was iound' guilty by the I/ord Chamberlain of attempted' blasphemy and mulcted and suppressed accordingly. Today the King makes, .that ■ '.manager 'a knight." ...'■'. ; ■• '*'"''■ ."..'l' ■■.•:-■' ■ Then, lapsing into his -characteristic vein, Mr. Shaw adds: "It only the King to make me a duke to complete, the situation, , ' '' < ■ • :,.-.- ( . ' r ' , . "This time," he proceeds, 'Sniy allegea offence is not blasphemy, but;'in Mr. Redford's own words, •personalities,, ejtprrcacd ; or'-understood.!-' .Now'Rβ to' personalities undersrtood'l can say nothing, for tlie Lord Chamberlain's understanding is a thing totally ' beyond comprehensiofl or even eonjee-' ture. But'.T.'can assuro the-public-, that- I hsvb been'careful not to expose-a single personality that'has not dqno duty-.again and again without offence in; tho, pages' ,■■ .of; ",;."Aloo attention is officially called to;tho rule "No representation of living persons to ■bo "permitted on the "stage. , - .-This'■ wholesale prohibition of holding the mirror up to nature does not, of bourse,) mean what it says. Oii what it is understood by the Lord Chamberlain to mean I have to observe, first, that I-have myself been 'represented, on; the stage,' with the Lord. Chamberlain's full approval, in a little-fantasy by no less wellknown jan author thatf my friend Mr. J. M. Barrie, and that on another occasion , my appearance was so exactly imitated that a near relative of iny was deceived jby tho resemblance.. ■'. '■".'. . ■'■■■: ■■••'■■ ■' ; '''After, this it is hardly-worth stating tliaf urilbli's"a"g&t'eSiiuely 'iinagiriafy, PWni'e Minister under the well-worn 'Punch , name of Balsquith, and a -wildly impossible .Teutophobe general *hom I christened Mitchensr in order -to clear- him of ; all 'iwssible, ; ■ sus-' ;picjon..of being aj .caricature of Lord Roberts, are to be 'oonsideral as. representations of living persons.in any more serious sense than-the topical people .in'our."Christmas pantomimes, I feel so little guilty that I cannot bring myself to believe that the reason given for 'destroying the value of several ■weeks of,my work is the. real reason." . ■ !-\'Dealing-:wijfo tho .banned play itself, Mr. Shaw-explained that, apart from the suffrage question, it dealt seriously with" the scare about.the Germans-and the question of compulsory military service. The only real obstacle to. the latter in this country,; he said, was tho fact'that. at. present, the man ■ who enlists as a,soldier loses all his civil - rights and becomes simply an abject slave. There is not a single Suffragette in the play, which contains six characters, three men and ■ .three- women, and the other'two are antiSuffragettes.'lt is by tho arguments of tho anti-Suffragettes that General -Mifchcner and Mr,' Balsquith are converted to the. suffrage movement;..,'' .... • . .'.'' .. .

At the beginning of.his part Mr. Balsquith alludes to hie wife, and'at the end of it he describes himself as a''bachelor in order to prevent any possibility of it being supposed that he is mord Mr.- Balfour than Mr. Asquith, or more Mr. Asquith than Mr. Balfour. ■ . ■. ; ' ' ~. ,