Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1928, Page 2

I tit', controversy over the Cnvo.il him still rages at Home, and the Auckland Star ventures to suggest, that some o. those engaged in it are losing sight cf the real point at issue. The argument in lavnur of exhibiting ,sitch pictures as “Dawn" or ‘‘.Mare Xostrim" or ‘‘lhe hour Horsemen of the Apocalypse. ‘ ol course is that, as a matter trot It and j u.-1 ice t lie v orld -h mli! be a I low o I to |0,,.,.| I horrors of the Great War or to v nidone tin l guilt of those responsible lor its most barbarous atrocities. This is quite a sound argument as far as it goes, lint it ignores altogether the important co'ifcidoration.s that have moved the Board of Censors. The chairman oi the Board points- out that the Board “is bound to consider the opinions ol the statesmen of Europe” who are endeavoring to repair the material and moral ravages of the war and to establish universal peace. To exhibit such films as “Dawn,” however accurate or authentic they may be. is to revive and intensify the sense ol repulsion and hatred which the atrocities of the war arouses] against tlici -perpetrators, mid this policy is clearly incompatible with any attempt to conciliate our enemies or to induce I hem to join with us honestly and sin- , cerely in the attempt to attain security mill peace for the world til large. We may hate the Germans, if we choose, or we may treat them as men and brothers; but we cannot address them as trends, and invite them t-> sit with us at peace conferences, while we are perpetuating national animosity against them by picturing far anil wide the worst horrors of the Great War.