Early Decision On Miss Rice-Davies

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 3

Early Decision On Miss Rice-Davies

l New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 25. The Parliamentary Petitions Committee will hold a special sitting tomorrow to deliberate on submissions made at today’s meeting of the committee on the proposed visit of Miss Mandy Rice-Davies to New Zealand.

The managing-director of New Zealand Promotions Agency, Ltd., Mr R. A. Flower, said today his agency had booked Miss Rice-Davies for a tour beginning in Wellington on September 10 and ending in Auckland on September 18.

Tonight the chairman of the Petitions Committee, Mr G. G. Grieve (Govt., Awa-) rua) said that in fairness to the promoters, the committee should come to an early decision on whether to recommend that Miss RiceDavies be allowed to enter New Zealand as an entertainer.

As a result, some members of the committee had agreed to postpone some meetings so they could attend a special meeting of the committee at 830 a.m. tomorrow.

This would give the committee an hour and a half to deliberate before each party’s weekly caucus meeting began. He said he hoped the committee could come to a decision and if it did, it was the intention of the committee to make a report to Parliament tomorrow.

The duty and obligation of all right thinking people was to take steps to prevent New Zealand's youth from being contaminated by people like Miss Rice-Davies, submitted Mrs J. A. Trevarton, commandant for the Hamilton battalion of the Girls’ Life Brigade. Mrs Trevarton was representing Wilfred Manning Bolland and 64 others from the Hamilton district who petitioned Parliament to try to prevent Miss Rice-Davies from entering New Zealand as an entertainer. Mrs Trevarton was introduced by the Parliamentary L'nder-Secretary to the Minister of Industries and Commerce and Minister of Customs (Mr L. R. AdamsSchneider) who is the member for Hamilton.

He explained to the committee that Mr Bolland and some of the others who signed the petition were unable at the last moment to attend the hearing and Mrs Trevarton had undertaken to present their views.

Read Statement Mrs Trevarton read a short statement to the committee ' and then replied to questions from committee members. The statement said: “We, who have signed this petition, are strongly of the opinion that an entertainer of the type of Miss Rice-Davies should not be allowed to enter New Zealand for the purpose of financial gain. “Miss Rice-Davies, on her own admission, practised prostitution. “She achieved notoriety together with Miss Christine Keeler and other prostitutes during the trial of Dr. Stephen Ward. “Surely, any person who has read the reports of that trial must agree that Miss RiceDavies and other women associated with her, were undesirable characters. “We firmly believe that we must have regard to the morals of our young people. “For a person like Miss Rice-Davies to demonstrate that immoral conduct can result in considerable financial gain could influence some of our girls to attempt to do likewise.

“It is the duty and obligation of all right thinking people to take steps to prevent our youth from being contaminated by such people. “We are happy to leave this matter>in the hands of your

committee to decide whether our views are right or wrong. “We trust that you will give most favourable consideration to the prayer of our petition,” said the statement.

Representatives Mrs Trevarton said the petition, which was arranged hurriedly, had been signed by people who represented church, cultural, welfare, youth and other service organisations in the city and district of Hamilton. .The Minister of Housing (Mr Rae) asked Mrs Trevarton whether Miss RiceDavies would prove the attraction to young people that some people feared. He said the background of some of the stars in films that come to this country would not stand investigation but the films were still allowed entry. Mrs Trevarton replied that the film on Christine Keeler’s life was banned from entering New Zealand and the fact that Australia had banned the entry of Miss Rice-Davies spoke for itself. New Zealand should do likewise, she said.

Mr R. Macdonald (Opp., Grey Lynn) said he understood that Miss Rice-Davies was only 16 when mixed up in “this unsavoury case” yet she was the one that had been given the limelight subsequently.

Some Forgotten The prominent people like Lord Astor who had also been involved had been forgotten. He suggested that those who signed the petition, as Christian people, should try to help “these poor people out of the darkness they have fallen into.”

Mr Macdonald also suggested that the presenting of the petition and the subsequent publicity would tend to interest young people in the case who might otherwise not have been interested. Mrs Trevarton said it was the notoriety of the girl that the petitioners were concerned about. “After all, she struck at the heart of England.” She said the petitioners were only interested in the entry of Miss Rice-Davies as an entertainer.

“We are trying to help the young people of New Zealand. It is not the type of entertaining she is doing, but the girl who is doing the entertaining that is the trouble.” “New Leaf” Mr Macdonald suggested that Miss Rice-Davies might have turned over a new leaf. “We would hope so, but it is only about two years since she was involved in the case,” said Mrs Trevarton.

In reply to a question from Mr J. R. Harrison (Govt., Hawke’s Bay), Mrs Trevarton said it was not only older people who were interested in keeping Miss Rice-Davies out but also young people in youth organisations, some of whom had got in touch with her.

Mr D. Thompson (Govt., Stratford) asked if Miss RiceDavies sang at some gathering where by law minors could not be present, as in the case of a licensed restaurant, would Mrs Trevarton object? Mrs Trevarton said she would still be concerned but less concerned in such a case. Mr Macdonald read to Mrs Trevarton a letter from a person in her own district saying: “In the name of God, why this desire to persecute a

human being, if she is living within the law? ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord’ —certainly not the petitioners.” Letters supporting the petition against Miss Rice-Davies’s entry to New Zealand were produced for the committee’s consideration.

They had been written by people in Palmerston North, Mapua, Frankton, Plimmerton and Raumati South.

Other letters ' condemning the petition were received from persons in Masterton, Frankton and Otorohanga. Sophisticated Mr J. A. Tannahill, representing New Zealand Promotion Agency, Ltd., the firm promoting Miss Rice-Davies’s visit to New Zealand, said the firm was concerned with introducing a more sophisticated type of entertainment to New Zealanders.

He said it had approached American agencies in an attempt to bring an American cabaret-type singer to New Zealand but had not been successful.

It then approached European interests and found that Miss Rice-Davies was available to tour.

Mr Tannahill said Miss Rice-Davies was purely a cabaret singer and her act did not involve strip-tease. In the last two years she had appeared in cabarets in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and at the Freddie Mills Club in London. He said his client firm found it difficult to understand the reasons for the repugnance of some people to Miss Rice-Davies touring New Zealand. He said the firm took this view in view of the nature of entertainment operating at Wellington’s two strip clubs and other clubs of this type throughout the country. Miss Rice-Davies’s appearances would be restricted to cabarets and licensed restaurants, and she would be unlikely to influence teenagers, who by their very definition, would not legally be allowed to enter such cabarets, he said.

No Conviction It had been alleged that Miss Rice-Davies was trading on her notoriety arising out of the Ward-Profumo scandal, but she had no criminal convictions and had in fact been a prosecution witness in the London trial, said Mr Tannahill.

It was notable that in Lord Denning’s report Miss RiceDavies’s name appeared only six times, and this indicated that she was a minor player whose importance had been exaggerated by sensational journalism. It was a tribute to her that she had been able to change her way of life to such an extent, he said.

Mr Tannahill said to the committee that entertainers who had been allowed entry to New Zealand in the past included Thelonious Monk, a jazz musician, who had been convicted in the United States on a narcotics charge. He said that denying Miss Rice-Davies the right to earn her living in New Zealand because of her past reputation was creating a dangerous precedent. “A young woman is being zondemned now for what happened when she was 16 and under the influence of men like Dr. Stephen Ward.” Her proposed Australian visit had been cancelled by the promoters because of the storm of criticism and objections from religious groups, he said.

Undertake Bond

In reply to a question from Mr Harrison, Mr Tannahill said the New Zealand promoters would be prepared to undertake a bond restricting Miss Rice-Davies from appearing before people under 18. A private citizen, Alan Miller, spoke in support of allowing Miss Rice-Davies free entry to New Zealand. He said he had been listening to the submissions and questions for two hours, and had almost convinced himself that the year was 1665, not 1965, and that witches were still being burnt at the stake. It was very dangerous to judge on questions of a moral nature when what might be right in London was considered wrong in Istanbul and vice-versa, he said. If the people Miss RiceDavies had been associated with in London were just ordinary citizens, then she could have walked off the boat here without a comment being passed. After the submissions the meeting was closed to the press by the chairman.