A STRONG PLEA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17154, 2 October 1926, Page 9

A STRONG PLEA

LONDON, July 31. fin the Morning Post to-dav there appears a, letter from the Hon. \V. 11. Triggs, whose subject, is the effect of , foreign films on the Empire. He says I that in New Zealand, the most British ; of the Overseas Dominions, there is a ! strong desire on the part, ot the public, for British films, but, British films are scarcely ever teen, while tho few that •do arrive are greatly inferior in technique to those with which the Dominion is flooded by the. United States. In a large number of the theatres even the news pictures are American, and the opportunities of making use of them to “ boost " American trade are seized with astuteness. " It is not only the European citizens of the Empire who have to bo considered l /’ writes Mr. Tviggs. “ t was a member of a Parliamentary party which visited Samoa (for which New Zealand 1 holds the mandate from the League of Nations) and Cook Islands, wsicli is a dependency of New Zealand. The picture show is a popular

SUPPORT WANTED FOR BRITISH FILMS

institution in these and other islands ot the Pacific. It is strongly represented to us that many of the pictures shown had a. demoralising effect on the native races. Leading European settlers said thal-son no account ought pictures to he shown which tended to degrade, the white woman in tin natives’ eyes. ” The Mother Country ha.s been temporarily beaten in sonic branches of industry. but: has usually managed to recover lost ground when she 1 put her bark into it.’ We look to her not to throw up tin- sponge in this case. It is mere than a me.ie material loss of trade that is; at stake; there are bonds of sentiment a,ml affection, and even moral issues involved. 1 can say. with all confidence, that the sympathies of the New Zealand people are with the effort, that is being made to throw off the American thrall; that if good British pictures are produced they will he gladly welcomed, and that, if necessary, Parliament, which is always loyal to the Mother Country, will not hesitate to help the British producers by some form of preferential treatment.”