FRENCH CENSORSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 18408, 17 October 1923, Page 5

FRENCH CENSORSHIP

1 BIRTH OF A NATION 1 BANNED.

KU KLUX ELAN SCENES OBJECTED TO.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyrignt.

LONDON, October 15,

Tho ‘ Morning Post’s ’ Paris correspondent states -that’there has been a sensation in the French film world.

Despite tho Government's refusal to allow tho exhibition of Mr D. W. Griffith’s picture ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ tho film was shown in Parts for two days, and attracted record attendances at a leading Boulevard kincma house. _ On tho third dav a dozen gendarmes lined up at tho doors, and would not allow tho public, to enter, on the ground that the scones depicting tho Ku Klnx Klan activities in the Southern States against tho negroes were offensive'to tho colored population of France.

The police offer to license tho film if all tho scenes connected with the Ku Klnx Klan are eliminated. Tho owners of the film refuse, and threaten action against tho Government to recover 2,000,000 francs damages. —A. and N.Z. Cablo. [A ban was imposed on "The Birth of a Nation ’ in Paris in August last, tho reason given by tho police being that the scenes in tho 'film depicting conflicts between negroes and white people might lead to strife between the white and colored inhabitants of Franco. ‘The Birth of a Nation’ deals with tho American Civil War and-the freeing of slaves. The assaulting of white women by blacks and tho origin of tho Ku Klnx Klan are also shown.]