People who realize these evils shriek for the
suppression of motor cars, the virtual imprisonment and
enslavement of the young, the passing of Press Laws (especially
in Egypt, India, and Ireland), exactly as they shriek for a
censorship of the stage. The freedom of the stage will be abused
just as certainly as the complaisance and innocence of the
censorship is abused at present. It will also be used by writers
like myself for raising very difficult and disturbing questions,
social, political, and religious, at moments which may be
extremely inconvenient to the government. Is it certain that a
Committee of the Privy Council would stand up to all this as the
price of liberty? I doubt it. If I am to be at the mercy of a
nice amiable Committee of elderly gentlemen (I know all about
elderly gentlemen, being one myself) whose motto is the highly
popular one, "Anything for a quiet life" and who will make the
inevitable abuses of freedom by our blackguards an excuse for
interfering with any disquieting use of it by myself, then I
shall be worse off than I am with the Lord Chamberlain, whose
mind is not broad enough to obstruct the whole range of thought.
If it were, he would be given a more difficult post.
SHALL THE EXAMINER OF PLAYS STARVE?
And here I may be reminded that if I prefer the Lord Chamberlain
I can go to the Lord Chamberlain, who is to retain all his
present functions for the benefit of those who prefer to be
judged by him.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99