FILM CENSORSHIP.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20731, 16 December 1932, Page 16

FILM CENSORSHIP.

TO THE EDITOR OT THE PRESS. Sir,—first. I must thank Mr N. Ai. Bell for his courtesies; I fully appreciate them and desire to reciprocate. I am ill agreement with most of what he says regarding the personnel of the Hoard of Selectors. He suggests that a woman should ho one of tho threo members and I fully agree with him; in fact", it was in my mind from tho outset, only I omitted to state it clearly, as my selection was only a tontativo one for the purposes of discussion. Where I do not follow him •is that he would confine her representation to the social service organisations only, and not to the church.es generally. Surely these .organisations are in the main'based upon the spirit of the Christian Churches and constitute a part of the whole; that is how I view the mattei. I think Mr Hell is not quite accurate when he states that the universities ami churches have followed in the wake of human progress and not in the van. As institutions he is probably right, but the leaven of life must have timo to effect its purpose. All institutions, we know, arc apt to give undue'weight to the upholding of the. inst:tution, and so are fearful of taking risks. Probably their actions have been justified in the generality of cases, but in that instance where the new life is beginning to show, the institution as a body may have been ultimately proved to have been in tho wrong. Yet, there have always been some within the fold who have recognised the new force, and striven for attainment. It is precisely these whom we wish to capture, but they are in the minority, and it is common knowledge that the minority is not tho voice of a national vote; hence my suggestion that the university and churches should constitute the elective bodies as providing better ground for the selection of suitable representation. When 1 specify tho university I do not mean the Senate only, but a meeting of delegates from the colleges, including tho teachers' training colleges and their allied institutions, who would discuss the subject as a national one and appoint their representative, choosing one who has their entire confidence, so that he would bo free to act upon his own mature judgment and without restrictions of any kind from those who appoint him. Having then in my own mind decided that the university, in spite of its conservatism is the best medium through which the intellectual thought of tho country can be proclaimed, I feel the same in regard to the churches as to their being the national spiritual voico of the nation. Again, by the churches 1 mean them to be' understood in tlie widest possible senso, including all who have tho true welfare of the nation at heart. I would shut out nobody who has sufficient interest in the subject to act. Hero, I think, tho cause would be served by a woman, as suggested by Air Bell, and she would act m the interests of the women and children.

Mr Bell appears to condemn conservatism as such, but I think that, perhaps, it is unintentional. Conservatism is merely acting on past experience, which is quite praiseworthy, and is consolidating a position gained at the cost of past endeavours. It is true that it may sometimes take tb> form of sticking* in the mud, but the position will not be bettered by a too impatient forward movement by some of the more eager members. Again, why docs he limit the ago to 40? A man has not done much more than begin to realise what lifo stands for at that age, for he has but little personal knowledge of history, and is unable from his own experience to compare present conditions with the problems of the past. Believe me, Providence know nest when tho nge limit was fixed at three score years and ten. Ago has little to do with the advance of thought; that rests within the individual entirely. More than half of my years lie within the Victorian era, and I, as a man, venture to think that most of my political opinions would tend to raise the hair of the orthodox, yet I counsel patience and forbearance where others differ from us. What we want then is to have three of the very best selectors that we can obtain, and to do so we need the cooperation of all who will join us. At the same time we wish to avoid as far as possible all the turmoil of party politics and propaganda, always remembering that "the web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."—Yours, etc., QTT n December 15th, 1932.