APOLOGY DEMANDED

Southland Times, Issue 22052, 27 June 1933, Page 5

APOLOGY DEMANDED

DIRECTOR OF COMEDY COMPANY. COMEDIANS AND TOWN CLERK. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 26. The City Council intends demanding an apology from Frank Neil, director of a comedy company playing here, for remarks made at a Sunday night concert, allegedly having the effect of making the Town Clerk, Mr E. P. Norman, ridiculous. The company had agreed to give a concert in aid of the Smith Family Distress Fund. The council requires that all programmes be submitted to the Town Clerk for approval or otherwise. Some confusion occurred regarding the appointment to discuss some details in connection with the dialogue, but the concert proceeded according to plans, Neil making humorous references to the city’s censor. The Mayor reported the matter at a council meeting to-day when councillors remarked that it was unfair that the clerk should be submitted to trouble and affronts in reviewing programmes. It was eventually decided to demand an apology. Neil says the company was giving its only free night in aid of the distressed. The clerk had made an absurd request, asking that the full words be given by Wallace and Beck. They were comedians, not monologue artists and he had confidence they would not say anything inappropriate. The performance gave pleasure, he said, “and raised much needed money for a deserving cause. This is 1933 and smug hypocracy should take a back seat to the needs of the moment.”