Australians Annoyed At Banning Of Books

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28413, 21 October 1957, Page 11

Australians Annoyed At Banning Of Books

(Rec. 11 p.m.) MELBOURNE, October 19. Thousands of Australians are innoyed by the knowledge that books circulating freely in otner countries can be banned nere on the decision of men whose only ‘‘qualification” to judge literature is that they are clerks in the] Customs Department.

A discussion on book censorship this week during consideration of the Estimates in the House of Representatives io expected to lead to a liberalisation of the official attitude on what adult Australians shall be allowed to read.

A Liberal member, Mr Aiex Downer, of South Australia, said the existing censoiship created the impression abroad that the Australian approach was that oi 9 “high-hatted, tigntly-corsetted lorgnette-gazing dowager. " There *'as no consistency in the Australian system. Mr Percy Joske ‘Liberal) a lawyer who is sponsoring a private member’s bill <o standardise grounds for divorce action in Australia, said a tello v memoei of the House who haa read Love Me Sailor” described it as ‘dull ” *et. he said, the ouok was the subject of a successful prosecution in the Victoi ian Supreme Court before a jury which found the book obscene. Mr Joske said he mentioned this to illustrate the difference in Public opinion There should be constant revision of banned books, he said. Many of those on the banned list had oren there 3‘* (years or more.

‘‘Public standards change.” he hd. “and what mignt be banned |day on the ground of indecency fculd be very different from that 30 years ago.”

A Labour memoei. Mi uesiie Haylen, disclosed wna* many had been curious about when he said that the number of books “censored by the bureaucracy’ wa.> 1100. “How ridiculous and in many cases how lumourous oi whimsical.” he commented.

He recalled that Catcher in the Rye,” telling of the experiences of a 16-year-old truant, had been read for six years before someone was duly shocked. It was then banned, but was recently released from the ban.

"The Golden Ass" had been selling for 20 years before "the sales office boy” got hold of it and it was banned, he said.

Mr Haylen maintained lhai Norman Lindsay’s story of a Victorian country town in his book "Red Heap” had been locked away from the public for 30 years

Even Paul Galileo’s delicate masterpiece “The snow Goose” was banned.

The Opposition eader, Di. H. V. Evatt, said Courts and not officials should decide whether a book should be admitted to the country

Dr. Evatt’s participation in the discussion led Mr Joske to remark that Dr. Evatt was AttorneyGeneral from 1941 ‘o 1949 yet he

“never as much as raised a murmur” against the banning ol books under customs regulations. Although there nas been no formal Ministerial undertaking to take book censorship to the Cabinet. members (and at least a section ol the Australian public are hopeful that the airing given the subject in the House will lead to reform. With that migni come a review' of the list of 1100 books which. by varying official rulings, have been labelled unlit for Australian adult reading.