4. Authors are to be rescued from their present subjection to an
irresponsible secret tribunal which can condemn their plays
without giving reasons, by the substitution for that tribunal of
a Committee of the Privy Council, which is to be the final
authority on the fitness of a play for representation; and this
Committee is to sit in camera if and when it pleases.
5. The power to impose a veto on the production of plays is to be
abolished because it may hinder the growth of a great national
drama; but the Office of Examiner of Plays shall be continued;
and the Lord Chamberlain shall retain his present powers to
license plays, but shall be made responsible to Parliament to the
extent of making it possible to ask questions there concerning
his proceedings, especially now that members have discovered a
method of doing this indirectly.
And so on, and so forth. The thing is to be done; and it is not
to be done. Everything is to be changed and nothing is to be
changed. The problem is to be faced and the solution to be
shirked. And the word of Dickens is to be justified.
THE STORY OF THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE
Let me now tell the story of the Committee in greater detail,
partly as a contribution to history; partly because, like most
true stories, it is more amusing than the official story.
All commissions of public enquiry are more or less intimidated
both by the interests on which they have to sit in judgment and,
when their members are party politicians, by the votes at the
back of those interests; but this unfortunate Committee sat under
a quite exceptional cross fire.
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