BOOK CENSORSHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1933, Page 7

BOOK CENSORSHIP

COMMONWEALTH ACTION, . !/. -ill: A BOARD TO BE SET UP. SYDNEY, May 26. For years it has fallen to the lot o-f some obscure Federal Customs official to ,say what literature should ■be banned in Australia. Over and over again it has been asserted that this should not be the right of any particular man, particularly if that man is merely a civil servant. As a;i individual h e has not been open to direct criticism, for the Minister for Customs has always been most anxious to hide hie identity. Perhaps it was not always the same man whp acted as censor, but it was the practice of the Customs Department, whenever a hook, came under suspicion, to refer it to headquarters in Canberra. There a decision was. given from which there wag no appeal. A hook could be banned, and no questions wer e .answered. , . ;

It is felt that, in many instances', the censorship was a little too harsh, and that Australia wa s made to , look! ridiculous ‘in the eyes of people ui \ other .parts of the world who were allowed -absolutefreedom m. . the. .choice of their reading. If the ban- J ning of books had been confined to those of a filthy nature and of no literacy significance, no one would have objected, for there is.no popular demand for purely obscene books, but it is feared that the censor in many cases has blundered badly, and has failed to give credit to Australians for taking a. broad view, , |

All this is to be changed new, and in .the place of a Customs official, Australia is to have a real Board of Censor?. Its “reading'morals,” if one may use that term, are to be in the hands of three residents of Melbourne. (Having heard th e Minister’s announcement one can picture three kindly old gentlemen under jo Jin f uaui ponje.t—Jisej 9 iipj them. For the Minister has stated that they must be willing to act in an honorary capacity, and they must have the necessary leisure to devote to their reading. They are to guide th e Minister i.n the class of books, he will permit Australians to read. The Minister will reserve to himself the right definitely to ban a book. This new hoard has not been as yet, but the Minister will give the consideration immediately the Hpufje of Representatives goe s into recess. There will not be a wonrn on the board. The Minister says that some of the books that come to Australia are so filthy that he would not ask a woman to read them. For that reason the women are up in arms. They say that the greatest burdens of the evils of the world are home by women, and if anyone is to censor books, then th e women should have a &ay. The women themselves consider that there are - hundreds of women who are sufficiently educated. and with a wide enough international view and knowledge of international literature to sit on a censorship hoard. Women, they s-y. are the greatest reader,, and the greatest writers of fiction, and on these grounds tliev are going to protest not only to the Minister for C"<?but to th e Prime Minister himself.