EXPURGATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 11 January 1927, Page 7

EXPURGATED.

FRENCH PAPER. Papal Ban on Royalist Journal. PEACE POLICY CRITICISED. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) PARIS, January 10. The newspaper, "L'Action Francaise,*' has been placed by the Pope on the "Index Expurgatorious," as ■well as several works of its editor, M. Maurras. The Pope charges the paper, which is a Royalist publication, with lack of respect for Papal authority, condemning what he terms its attitude of revolt and of scorn for the truth. His Holiness recalls the fact that Pope Pius X decided to ban the same newspaper, but postponed action. He is now enforcing the ban, owing to the criticisms which have been made by the paper of the approval by the Vatican of the peaceful policy being pursued by France. This approval was conveyed through a speech made by the Papal Xuncio, Monsignor Maglione, at the New Year reception to the diplomatic corps, given by the President, M. Doumergue. Charles Marie Phatius Maurras, is one of the most influential French writers. In his earlier years, while studying philosophy, Maurras, in the Latin quarter of Paris, came in contact with Moreas and Mistral, noted writers, under whose influence his monarchist and anti-democratic views became steadily stronger. He became leader of a group of neo-monarchists, and one of the founders of the Royalist Association and its paper, both known as "L'Action Francaise." In 1926 he was accused by Cardinal Andrieu, Arehfoishop of Bordeaux, of a policy of atheism, anti-Catholicism and force superior to every consideration of justice and morality to the detriment of the many and the benefit of the few. He forbade Catholics to subscribe to the tenets of Maurras 7 party and paper. Maurras was charged in 1925 with incitement to murder, on the ground that in an open letter in '"L'Action Francaise" he made use of inflammatory language regarding the Minister of the Interior, and the Court inflicted a sentence of two years' imprisonment and a tine of 2000 francs, which was upheld after an appeal to the Court of Cassation. The readers of a Paris paper, asked to name three works which should be circulated abroad, mostly declared for one of Maurras' books, while a vote taken by a Catholic paper in Belgium as to the most popular present-day author, went in his favour.