BRITISH FILMS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4187, 22 May 1939, Page 2

BRITISH FILMS

THE CULTURAL ASPECT. “This matter of the production of British films is, of course, tremendously important. We have to consider the cultural aspects of the question, the effects of British films of the right quality in our overseas possessions and in foreign countries, and also the question of employing the technicians and the multitude of tradesmen who normallj' would seek and find employment in a great Industry. It is, therefore, of very great Importance, and I do not think you can treat the film industry like any ordinary commercial activity. It stands really in a class by itself, and I think for that reason the Government ought to reconsider whether they should not themselves take some hand in the question of providing finance. I do not mean that they should give a subsidy, but I think a word from the Treasury in the right quarters in the city of London and in banking circles would be a great encouragement to the formation of a finance corporation, properly advised by the most skilled assessors available, who would pick out the men who had proved themselves worthy of support as British film producers and directors, and would encourage suitable younger men coming along who at present have hardly a chance of showing what they are capable of in this great and important field of culture.” —Lord Strabolgi, in the House of Lords.