STAGE CENSORSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 662, 12 November 1909, Page 11

STAGE CENSORSHIP.

::b \ ■iiV'i'A bishop's vnsws. , ; " ■•■ : v\ '- :: oi/October 2) tlial ine, best witness'who has , ■yet appeared ■ before. the Joint .Committee on the ( Censorship of ;the Stage is.the Bishop of bouthfrark. .yio Ms.'vpmidcn^Bpiho " Chnrflv Mid Stage ..Guild; , uiid ,-attendedVaf" the silk-" gosbon,;. of■.;•■ the;"' Archbishop'.'of ;! Canterbury ,: 'I hough' ho: declared that he had - little' or iio qualification to; speak—since iasi a , -clergyman ho .must carefiilly avoid seeing ! : any but. ■ the best, plays—yet:., lie.: eniijicint?d , ...jy singOlafiy broad, soiihd, 'vimvvtrfTthe■ matter', i was not a.inatter, iii'his opiliion, ; 'on, which people, like:'himself—(Scelftsiastics-arid ; so on— should have■;at all a•■lejidirig.iiroics, j",.lt was eminently a: matter,, on whiclr\theVco"nsci6pcb ; and judgment of the people at large'■'ought todecide.. Bβ • -was ilissatiatied with the present eystent certainly' on acc'ount'fbf; "a great'doal that it admitted; and very' possibly with g'ard to some of what lit excluded.'Y He -was very jealons for the .'dignity and status, of the stage,/aud gre-'itly'ilefiuod that tbo etago 6hould have bath liberty -and public recognition and 'respo.c'h 'These two ;things• seemed ;, to him io .secure : the i,fullest.:': Bomio.. of' responsibility on ■ the. part of • l.ho sUge. Tho -point;, at; which' consorsliip ■'wa3.'. ? iaoeil()'d''was,- the' point of decency.: •■ Jl'6;.wished to. draw a dis-.. tinctioii, betivedn decency, and inorality. .With regard,.;to .uioriilily: he 'would,., liot. desire to. interfere', ". with' -'a ' treatment,'' 'quite"'.', free. and ' bblil, of, .- moral questions, themes, probloms, 1 Taio .tho vinstancso 'of marriage. .:He ■ would ''iiot wish, : a ,play • prohibitedi ■"'bocatiae' it '.represented ■ viewe • 'An L ..'um , and a a'etropressiun .in morality' and civilisn-: tlon. He should to'see that stopped: by' the -Ciinsor, because he thought, it wiis. a matter on which pubio opinion, might be perfeotiy ,woll left, to itself.; 1 - These queetions ought to .be".threshed outLby public opinion, and if itho drama could lend'force to their: discussionr ho thought-it; might rightly' claim to. do so. . But Tr|herev«r'■ there was any approach to indecency—and- 'a perfectly ; moral theme might 'be treated in a way distinctly indecent, wrong and suggestive7-he ;would have that stopped. Oh the policy, of prphibiting pWys coutaining Scriptural, ohardctdrs; theY.bisfc.op'" said ~he:.saw' rie: reason certain linutid. lange: of Scriptural. enbjects';shonld not be allowed, but be'sorry to'give up tbepresent rule.unless the> kiew"a better rule to establieli for it. -Thcyicould liot go, : fnr- in the discussion of-Vacred snbjects-ort the stagejwithout the danger-of irreverence,-- or what was felt 'as irreverence by-a.large body.'of citiiene. In roply to a qnestiou. the bishop .said.he did not think it. would bo at all.desirable to limit the theatre to plays to >hich" they could take the "young person." Mr. Hall Cane and Mr." Chesterton have also fciyen ■ ofidenco, and tho. latter said, as representing the. aiidience, that. he"wouldhave a censnrshipj riot of a single man; but of brio olective'ibody for the wholo country. . The; joint comiriitteo hns now concluded the.'-, taking 'the"evidence,' and has adjourned for 'the;preparation of the. report.