TRIBUNAL ON BOOKS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30399, 25 March 1964, Page 14

TRIBUNAL ON BOOKS

N.Z. Method Praised (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) SYDNEY, March 22. Australia’s book censors at present taking erratic potshots at Mary McCarthy’s latest novel, “The Group,” had been put to shame again by New Zealand, the “Sunday Mirror” said. It declared: “New Zealand has brought censorship into the open—away from the anonymous policeman’s desk to the bench of a public tribunal. This week, after considering the evidence of experts—evidence which was freely published in newspapers—the Indecent Publications Tribunal passed judgment on the novel ‘Another Country,’ by James Baldwin, the American Negro. Method Welcomed “It has decided that ‘Another Country’ is not indecent, although some of its language might shock readters. No restriction therefore will be placed on its sale. If we must have book censorship, this surely is the way to go about it. “The Commonwealth Government should quickly follow New Zealand’s civilised example and set up a judicial body able to judge a book on its literary merit and not according to bureaucratic prejudice,” states the newspaper. Melbourne Move Twenty-two senior members of Melbourne’s Monash University arts faculty have written to the Victorian Chief Secretary (Mr A. G. Rylah) protesting at the Victorian Government’s support for the withdrawal of “The Group.” In their letter to Mr Rylah, the university members said “to associate Mary McCarthy’s name with pornography ... is an insult to one of the most distinguished women authors in the world.”