1939-01-07 — Page 10

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THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 7, 1989.

The China Mail

Ninety-Third Year of Publication

Telephone 20022

crime and punishment and rings with a fierce hatred of hidden horrors and hypocrisy.“Map- chester Guardian."

*

A FREE PRESS

**

Admitted abuses in the appli-

A Wyndham Street, Hong Kong.cation of the Official Secrets Act have combined with the specta- cle of a muzzled and docile Press in most of the countries of the Continent to raise the question whether Britain too is heading towards some form of Govern-

London Office:

17, Garrick Street, London, W.C.2 |ment censorship. Where there is

Notice To Contributors,

All communications intended for

publication should be addressed to

the Editor, and be accompanied by

the Writer's Name and Address,

not necessarily for insertion but as

a guarantee of good faith.

distrust it is well that it should- be voiced, and the country may well be grateful to those mem- bers of Parliament who in the Commons made explicit certain recent rumours of coercion. That the debate should be conducted upon party lines was perhaps in- evitable, but it was not from one side of the House alone that the Government Was pressed to purge the Official Secrets Act of its more obnoxious clauses. Legis- lation passed with the declared object of combating espionage has, in more than one instance, been employed to combat the publication of minor official acti- vities entirely unconnected with defence; moreover, procedure in- consistent with the general theory of English law has been raised as a threat against a sus- pected offender who refused to incriminate himself. The under- taking given by the present Home Secretary that this un- usual procedure "will be applied Hong Kong, Saturday, January 7, 1939. only in cases of the gravest im-

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portance to the safety and the welfare of the State" binds none

MIRROR OF OPINION of his successors; nor can the

“HAMLET” IN DISGRACE

Though the Old Vic may be assured of official patronage and

standard of gravity be left to some future Secretary of State to decide for himself. Until a statu- tory amendment to the Act is passed it must be considered that the freedom of the Press is cap-

"Daily Telegraph."

HERALDING THE NEW YEAR

a triumphal progress in Italy, itable at any time of infringement. need not be hastily assumed that the torch of Shakespeare will be allowed to burn brightly from one

This perplexed world never be- end of the anti-Comintern axis to fore entered a new year with other. Away in Japan the police such a flood of messages which think that heat rather than has märked the birth of year light is likely to be generated by [1939 A.D. Few countries have re- our national poet, and a revival mained inarticulate under the of "Hamlet" has just been for-inspiration of a point in the cal bidden in Tokyo on the ground endar which has come to be in- that it may be "injurious to public terpreted in recent years not as a morals.' That sounds rather mere rècord of time, but a mile- vague, but the helpful Reuter stone in human experience and adds more explicitly that the a challenge to hope and encour- police are believed to hold the agement. Kings, statesmen, min- view that the play shows royaltyisters and national leaders of all "in an unfavourable light" and degrees have seized upon the op- that Hamlet himself is addicted portunity to issue some form of to "dangerous thoughts." Both statement on national aspirations the propositions show great perspica- and personal beliefs, and city. Royalty in "Hamlet" shows | cables are a vivid mosaic of hopes on-and fears, desires and disillusion- up very badly indeed right wards from "murder most foul, ments and appeals and regrets. strange, and unnatural,” and the With international affairs at a Prince himself is one of the most most acute stage and national subversive thinkers that ever policies, especially in Europe, in questioned the world around him. a dangerous degree of conflict, For one thing, he found that these messages would be mere world "weary, stale, flat, and un- words and generalities unless profitable," and nobody in that they reflected national views in disillusioned frame of mind regard to objectives--which they would have set to work to add do in an unusually frank manner to its disorders by the vast and because national relationships in ruthless invasion of a peaceful the scheme of things were never The human neighbour. Moreover, Hamlet (or more pronounced. his creator) was responsible for family, separated into states, one of the most "dangerous does not ever seem to have been thoughts" that was ever uttered: so unhappy but individually there "There is nothing either good or seems to be a feeling of optimism bad, but thinking makes it so." for politics, the man-made instru That, of course, is the hopeful|ment of adjustment, have been basis of at least half the propa- strangely stretched and mangled ganda that seeks to put a faire during the past year and there is face on open infamy, but those abundant opportunity for read who trust to such dishes would justment this year. At any rate, be in no way pleased to see their that is the hope and the belief recipe made generally public. which the public will try to read They may well look askance at into these messages. — “North "Hamlet" in Tokyo. It tells of China Daily News.”