SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 15

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

THE ACT OF 1781. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 17. Having heard the views of the London County Council, the kinematograph industry, and the theatrical profession on the question of the Sunday opening of places of amusement, Mr J. R. Clynes, the Home Secretary, has also listened to a deputation from the Lord’s Day Observance Society. It was explained by the deputation that the society would resist any amendment of the Act of 1781, .which would entail employees in the entertainment industry working more than six days a week. Sunday opening of theatres, kinemas, boxing halls, and other places of amusement was resisted on religious grounds. The deputation was with the Home Secretary for nearly two hours. The bodies represented were: The Church of England,. the Free Churches, the Salvation Array, the Brighton Lord’s Day Rest Association, and other religious and philanthropic organisations, the Middlesex United Committee for Sunday Defence, the Early Closing Association, the Stage Guild, the British-Israel World Federation, and business interests. The Home Secretary, in replying to the deputation, said that he was at present engaged in hearing the different points of view which were held by different bodies on the question of Sunday opening. He was not in a position at present to make any statement, as the Government had not had an opportunity of considering the question in all its aspects. THREE-PARTY TALK. It is stated that the Government is contemplating a conference with Conservatives and Liberals with a view to legalising Sunday concerts, kinemas, and theatres. They wish to discover if there is a sufficient basis of agreement to rush the necessary legislation through Parliament. If the political parties reach an agreement, Mr Clynes will probably introduce a Bill before Easter. It is understood that there would be no question of leaving the matter to local authorities to decide. It was pointed out that local option would lead to chaoa in many places, particularly in Scotland. “ You would find,” said a prominent politician, “ a ban on entertainments operating on one side of the rtroet and not m the other. That is why the only solution, from the Government point of view, is a three-party agreement.” MR LANSBURY’S COMMENT. Mr George Lansbury, the apostle of brighter London, is a keen advocate of altering the old Sabbath law, especially as a charity concert in which he was interested has been stopped. “It is too stupid for words. Work for charitable objects must be carried on, and it seems inconsistent with Christian principles to hamper it,” he said. “ Clergymen going to their churches travel by and trains. Surely it is just as inconsistent with Sabbath observance for to employ chauffeurs and railway officials. I have issued a private appeal to all my acquaintances asking them to help me to see that the children do not suffer from the ban on Sunday concerts. I trust the day is not far distant when public opinion in this country will refuse to tolerate the absurd laws which made your concert impossible.” BIG FINANCIAL LOSER. Mr Lionel Powell, the impresario, who was connected with the London symphony concert which was to have been conducted by Dr Willem Mengelberg, at the Palladium on Sunday, but was abandoned at the last momeut, said: “ I was given 36 hours’ notification of the veto. The result is that I have been made a big financial loser and made to appear as though I were fooling the public. I spent a large sum on advertising and preliminary arrangements. That is all lost.” Mr H. H- Martin, secretary of the Lord’s Day Observance Society, states that the society had never intended to oppose wholeheartedly any amendment to the Sunday Observance Act of 1781. It submitted that any amending Bill should “ make impossible the extension of the profit-making of the amusement-industry to seven days a week, and the exploitation of actors, actresses, and other kinema and theatre employees by involving them in a seven-days working week.” SUNDAY THEATRES. Mr Horace Watson, manager of the Haymarket Theatre, in a letter read at the annual dinner of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund, stated that if he were able to open his theatre on Sundays it would enable him to give additional employment to at least one-sixth more than the number now engaged on the staff. It would also give him the opportunity of offering employment to another company of actors for performances on that day, “ when one could play the classics, or possibly plays that are in the ordinary sense not what are termed altogether commercial.”