'ANOTHER COUNTRY' No Restriction On Paper-Back

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 6

'ANOTHER COUNTRY' No Restriction On Paper-Back

(New Zealand Press Association!

WELLINGTON, September 13. The Indecent Publications Tribunal today ruled that a paper-back edition of “Another Country,” by the Negro author James Baldwin, was not indecent.

It approved the paper-back for unrestricted distribution.

The tribunal’s decision was given by the chairman (Sir Kenneth Gresson). Sir Kenneth Gresson said the application, by Transworld Publications, Ltd., of London, had been made some time ago. The hearing had been adjourned pending the outcome of an appeal to the Supreme Court regarding a paperback edition of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” in respect of which the tribunal, by a majority, had declined to impose a restriction limiting circulation to persons over 18.

The Supreme Court, in a majority decision, had rejected the appeal. Sir Kenneth Gresson said the tribunal’s decision in respect of the hard-back edition of “Another Country,” given in March, 1964, was that the book presenting as it did a powerful and forceful picture

expressed sincerely and honestly, was not indecent. “We made the observation that the dust cover was simple and dignified and that the price at which the book was sold, 265, was a relevant consideration. In fact, the book had been on sale for some time and about 1400 copies had been sold. “We said that ‘were it to be published in a cheap edition with a suggestive cover our view might well be otherwise.’ “The book now submitted to us is a cheap edition. It is to be retailed at 6s 3d, but the cover is neither lurid nor suggestive. It is simple and dignified.

“Just as we held that the hard-back edition did not call for condemnation as indecent, so too we hold the same opinion regarding the paper-back edition now 'submitted to us. “We are not disposed to make any order restricting distribution, and hold accordingly, that the book is not indecent in terms of the Indecent Publications Act, 1963,” Sir Kenneth Gresson said.