WINDSOR CENSORSHIP

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1937, Page 11

WINDSOR CENSORSHIP

LONDON, June 25. Another instance of what appears to be a determination not to allow the Duke of Windsor's name to be mentioned in public, occurred at a London theatre one evening this week. The victim of this vague censorship was Mr Laurence Housman, author of the Queen Victoria play, “Victoria Regina.”. For many years this play nas been banned and now, a century after the great Queen’s accession, it has at length been sanctioned. It was largely due to King Edward’s personal influence, when he was on the Throne, that the ban was lifted. Mr Housman had prepared a little first-night speech, in which he intended to express thanks for “The gracious and unusual common sense of His late Majesty, King Edward, now Duke of Windsor.” But that was not the speech he made. He came before the curtain and said, “I have not been allowed to make the speech I wanted to, so all I will say is, ‘at last, at last!’”

It was only afterwards that people learned what Mr Housman had intended to say. He did not reveal who censored his remarks. It is safe to say that they would not have been resented by the Duke and Duchess of Kent, who were in the audience. Their presence also showed that the Royal Family have no objection to the portrayal of Queen Victoria on the stage—which was the reason for the censor’s long ban on “Victoria Regina.”