INDECENT LITERATURE IN ENGLAND.

Shannon News, 17 May 1929, Page 1

INDECENT LITERATURE IN ENGLAND.

NO CENSORSHIP. . HOW COUNTRY IS PURGED OF FILTH. LONDON, March 8. Following upon the successful prosecution of the publisher of a book'called "The sleeveless Errand," a deputation representing the London Public Morality Council waited upon the 'Home Secrotary and urged that it should be made a punishable' offence to sell to persons under IS years books calculated to corrupt the morals of-the'young. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks declared that no special legislation was at present necessary, as the existing law was enough. He appealed to authors to help their country and to help themselves by not forcing public opinion to such an extent that the demand for some sort of literary censorship will be impossible to resist. In the course of his reply, sir 1 William said that since January 1, 1923, there had been 73 prosecutions in this country in connection with the importation and sale of various indecencies. Writing to Paris. .".We find very frequently," he said, "young people write to Paris or Berlin or any other centre in answer to advertisements which appear in periodicals, sending money for the importation of these indecencies. We nearly always abstain from prosecutions, but the Director of Public Prosecutions or the head of the police in the district generally sends for these young people —very often from a university or publie school—and points out the stupidity of what they are doing. And I think I may say never again have wc found the same lad or girl writing for indecencies. These warnings take place in considerable numbers each year.'.' Sir William said that when he was in trouble.over a certain book two months ago a well-known writer came to him ai;d said: "I come from one of our universities to say you really niust exercise your jurisdiction in these matters. This kind of literature is getting into our universities,. is on sale in university towns, and, speaking as a man concerned with the education of our university students, I tell you of the damage it is doing, and it is your duty to exercise the power that Parliament has entrusted'to youf" The well-known author, whose name was a household word throughout the Empire, said the Home Secretary, was ali on the side of decency. Such authors were not worried in the least by the' idea of the Home Secretary exercising a- "literary censorship." "I am doing nothing of the. kind," declared Sir William. • "I am not a literary censor. I have no qualifications for the post. My duty is. to see that the law is carried out." Mr Bernard Shaw's Views. Sir William quoted from an article which recently appeared in the public press in which the writer said: "1 have always maintained that if ever wc have a literary censorship in England it is the authors who will be responsible for its existence." >■ "I think," commented Sir William "that is true. A certain number oi these books which I, unfortunately, an bound to read, are too grossly vulgar I am very glad indeed to see a gentle 'man with whom I do not always agree— Mr Bernard Shaw—who, stating hi? view regarding the article from which I quoted, said: 'I do not think'a liter ary censorship will become necessary. There are already facilities for dealing with books that,offend public decency.' Mr Bernard Shaw apparently agrees, and I am glad that he does, that thesel.uvs which are passed for the'purpose of dealing with indecencies should be enforced. It is my duty to enforce them. lam very glad that such ai • eminent writer as Mr Bernard Shaw should have publicly stated his approval of the enforcement of the law.'' Mr Archibald Allen, chairman of the Public Morality Council, who led the deputation, said that there were certainly publishers and writers who were eternally trying to go one better, or. possibly one worse, in the matter of putting before he public something that ivallv exceeded the borderline of de.cencv. "Of course," he said, the object "of this is Ls.d, which letters,, 1 think,-might stand for a slogan, 'Let's sell dirt,' " Decency Pays. "To be'foul-mouthed and blasphemous has ever been the hallmark of the unintelligent, the Caliban among men," says the Daily Telegraph, commenting on the subject.. "It seems strange that it should now become the preroative of novelists, for authors, like aftists, are surely set apart to show us the way to sweetness and light, not _o degrade us, but to elevate us. It is to be hoped that he wave reached the nadir of foulness in fiction, and that the young novelists now writing will take to heart the lesson read them by the Home Secretary. They will find that a return to good manners and clean habits will not diminish their popularity. The number of those who are willing to pay money to be disgusted is not 3o large as that of those who are walling to pay to >e entertained. - "