OATH OF ALLEGIANCE WITHIN THE EMPIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 184, 25 October 1927, Page 14

OATH OF ALLEGIANCE WITHIN THE EMPIRE

“UNNECESSARY,” SAYS VISITOR NEW PICTURES COMING “Why this senseless barrier? New Zealand is a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Australians are British. Why, then, should any oath of allegiance be necessary? MR. W. K. HOGGAN, of Paramount Pictures, who arrived in Auckland yesterday from Sydney, takes the New Zealand Government to task for requiring Britishers to declare their allegiance to the King on their arrival in the Dominion. “I can quite understand the attitude of the Government,” says Mr. Hoggan, “if this applied only to foreigners. But when Britishers bred and born are called upon to affirm their loyalty, it is too absurd!” Mr. Hoggan said he hoped the Government would abandon this requirement, which, he contended, was not in the best interests of travellers within the Empire. There was little to report concerning movie developments in the Commonwealth, he said, since his last visit, except the construction of important new theatres —a move which might be very profitably followed in New Zealand. “I believe that you should have better theatres for moving pictures in this country,” declared Mr. Hoggan. “You are certainly behind the Australians in this respect.” The Films Commission was still continuing its deliberations, and, to Mr. Hoggan’s mind, examining a great deal of irrevelant matter, tl had been set up with the object of deciding whether Australia was in the hands of a big American movie combine. “And so far it has discovered that there are two big combines actually in the country,” he added. Mr. Hoggan said that Paramount Pictures were sympathetic toward British productions and in 1926 had handled no fewer than 26 per cent, of them. The percentage this year, however, would not be more than 9 or 10 per cent. , Important features which New Zealand picture enthusiasts will see in due course will be “Chang,” an extraordinary jungle picture photographed among the beasts of the wild in the heart of Siam; Clara Bow in “Wings,” something entirely new, and taken with the co-operation of the United States Aviation Department; the “Wedding March” (Fay Wraye; “Beau Sabreur,” the P. C. Wren story with Gary Cooper in the lead; “Second to None,” another .British picture on the lines of “The Flag Lieutenant,” taken with the assistance of the Royal Navy, and with Dorothy Seacombe in the lead; and “Huntingtower,” the Scottish story, featuring Sir Harry Lauder.