THE DIPLOMATIC OBJECTION TO THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN
There is another reason, quite unconnected with the
Susceptibilities of authors, which makes it undesirable that a
member of the King's Household should be responsible for the
character and tendency of plays. The drama, dealing with all
departments of human life, is necessarily political. Recent
events have shown--what indeed needed no demonstration--that it
is impossible to prevent inferences being made, both at home and
abroad, from the action of the Lord Chamberlain. The most talked-
about play of the present year (1909), An Englishman's Home, has
for its main interest an invasion of England by a fictitious
power which is understood, as it is meant to be understood, to
represent Germany. The lesson taught by the play is the danger of
invasion and the need for every English citizen to be a soldier.
The Lord Chamberlain licensed this play, but refused to license a
parody of it. Shortly afterwards he refused to license another
play in which the fear of a German invasion was ridiculed. The
German press drew the inevitable inference that the Lord
Chamberlain was an anti-German alarmist, and that his opinions
were a reflection of those prevailing in St. James's Palace.
Immediately after this, the Lord Chamberlain licensed the play.
Whether the inference, as far as the Lord Chamberlain was
concerned, was justified, is of no consequence. What is important
is that it was sure to be made, justly or unjustly, and extended
from the Lord Chamberlain to the Throne.
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