1937-07-27 — Page 18

THE HONGKONG TE LEGRAPH, TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1987.

Dewar's

WHITE LABEL

THE

White Label

ST SCOTCH WUSE

OF CHEFT AGE

An Dewar & Sors

PERT

WHISKY OF DISTINCTION »

A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.

NEW "H.M.V"

VOCAL RECORDS

......Beniamino Gigli. DB3158-Vesti la giubba ("1 Pagliacci")

Pagliacci mio marito-Soronata d'Arlecchino. DA1514-Dia chre Gottes aus der Natur (Beethoven)

Ich liebe dich (Beethoven). DA1562--Wlogenlied (Brahms, Op. 49, No. 4)

Kirsten Flagstad.

Elisabeth Schumann. Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer (Brahms). C2909-Lucia di Lammermoor (Mad Scene).Lina Pagliughi.

Splendon lo sacro faci & Spargi d'amaro. DB3049--Che gelida manina (La Boheme-Puccini..Jussi Bjorling.

Celeste Aida (Verdi).

B8574-My Lovely Celia (Monro arr. Lane Wilson)

The Lass with the delicato air (Arne).

Nan Maryska.

THE

PACKARD SIX

CLUB SEDAN FOR FIVE PASSENGERS

IS HERE

"A TOP-QUALITY CAR"

LARGE AND ROOMY MODERATELY PRICED

Inspection and Trial Invited

Hongkong Hotel Garage

Stubbs Rd.

SHOWROOM

The

Phone 27778-9

Hongkong Telegraph.

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1937.

FOOLISH FILM CENSORSHIP

THE NEW Marriage Bill, with its iniquitous first clause of "No divorce within five years of marriage," has been passed by the Commons, and becomes

A SCANDAL

That Must Be

STOPPED

D

OES "the man in the street" take enough trouble to keep an eye on the M.P. who is sup: posed to represent him in Parliament?

It's dimcult and tiring work, and I fear that the eye which should be like the eye of a crab, able to revolve in all directions, far too often droops in weari- ness to sleep.

Take an instance of imme- diate urgency. Do the people realise that by a large majority a pernicious clause has been passed in a Bill sent up from the House of Commons to the Lords, and already in train there?

One may call it the Five Years' Immorality Clause-its principle is new to English law, reactionary, physiologically harmful and altogether stupid, but it was passed because Smith, Brown and Robinson were not on the alert.

ANE SMITH hopes to marry Joe Brown early next year; do they have any idea that unless the Lords suve them they will marry under the new medieval shackles, much more reaction- atry than anything their parents

live ever even imagined?

A Shanghai journal, not with out cause, recently indulged in

A little sarcastic humour Hongkong's expense in connec- tion with methods employed by our local film censors. Its com- ments were based on the action taken to eliminate from cinema posters and photographs all

Of course they neither realise

or know that Mr. A, P. Herbert as got his joke through on nem, and while professing to "reform" the Divorce law, has bamboozled the House into passing the following, that----

"No petition for divorce shall be presented to the High Court

B8573-The Valley where wishes come true.... Walter Glynne. dangerous weapons by the sim-unless at the date of the presen-

I'll walk beside you.

The July list also contains many interesting instrumental records and snappy dance numbers.

S. MOUTRIE & CO., LTD.

York Building

That 9 may live

Emotion-glorious drama of a love

so steadfast that your heart exults!

with

ROCHELLE HUDSON ROBERT KENT

Chater Road.

J. EDWARD BROMBERG

Executive Produce: Sol m. Wurtzel Diracted by Allan Deon

"I paid the penalty for my mistake! Now they want me for something I never didi"

"No matter what you've done.. quilty or not...you

must live...that we

may love!"

AT

TO-MORROW QUEEN'S

THE

ple process of pasting slips of tation of the petition five years white paper over reproductions have passed since the date of

the marriage."

of revolvers and other arms. This is in line with the policy

66

"A

GOOD thing. too!" WILE comment some obscurantist, theo- persons, logically minded

there should be no divorce at

The supporters of the Bl purport in it to extend the grounds of divorce so as to re- lease those who at present suffer hopelessly the unfairness of

says Dr.

Marie C. Stopes

Founder of the Mothers' Clinics

being tied for years to a spouse who has deserted or cruelly ill- treated them,

"What does it matter? " sayo Jane Smith; "I love my Joe and he loves me, and we won't want a divorce in fifty years."

That is, of course, the right spirit in which to enter mar- rlage, but there are unexpected physical aspects of marriage which sometimes alter all the plans and feelings of the couple within a few days, even a few hours, of the ceremony.

If Jane Smith and Joe Brown Just happen to be (as they can- not discover till after they are married) physically unsuited to each other, it may be that with the best will in the world re- maining close friends, they can- not effect the prime purpose of marriage together-can never become happy parents,

S

UCH young people to- day can escape, how- ever devious the means they must employ to do so, they can sue for a divorce almost at once, but were tha "reform" Bill to become law they and all other sufferers will have to endure the agony for five years before they can apply for divorce.

Now, Jane and Joe, it is no good your writing to your Member of Parliament about it and saying, "Give us young folk the freedom our parents' generallon had "for it is already out of their hands, they · have already sold you in this clause, as the price they paid to reactionaries to get freedom for your elders.

The price asked by reaction- arles for the much-needed re-

form, that some few thousand heart-sick older couples should be able to get their legal free- dom, is the five-year shackle on all young people and newly- married people in England for all time-or until the clause is repealed.

It is very much easier to get a reactionary clause or Bill passed than to get it repealed again, as Americans who have suffered from the rushed Comstock clause bitterly realise,

The only hope is that the peers will realise the folly of this five- year clause, and all the strong arguments there are against it.

Its fate will be decided shortly. in the House of Lords. There, let us hope, it will be handled by experienced and clear-thinking

inen.

This divorce Bill sets itself out to "amend the law relating to marriage and divorce,"

"Whereas it is expedient for the true support of marringe. the pro- tection of children, the removal of hardship. the reduction of illicit unions ant anseemly litigation, the roller of conscience

Among the clergy, and the restoration of the respect for the law, that the Acts relating to marriage and divorce be Amended: "

A

because some reform of our divorce laws is clearly neces- sary. It will then go into Com-. mittee in the Lords,

There are minor features in the Bill, also reprehensible. As they are physiological this is perhaps not the place to discuss them,

Remind Lord Snell, who, I bo- leve, la steering it through their Lordships House, that if more argument is wanted, we have re- cently in the House of Commons and through Broadcasting been told that England wants bables, that marriage should be more fortile, yet the same legisla- tors, hardly stopping to Lake breath, are in this clause institut- ing a sterlitsing measure.

mora

Jane and Joe marry because they want to have bables (and that

Is the best reason of all for marriage) but then flud. that they can never make a success of marriage, instead of being able in a friendly and kindly fashion to separate and each to try to find a spouse who will full the natural longing for parenthood. they will not be allowed to do so.

Instead the new law will com- pel them to wait for the five best years of married life, walt while little wrinkles and crowateet. itrow round Jane's eyes, and she becomes much less likely to be able to and the right mate.

The legislators who simul- taneously cry out for higher birth rate and pass such a clause as Cinuse I In this Bilt, are elther stupid or treacherous.

The deletion of Clause I from Mr. Herbert's Bill is vital, but that is not all the Bill needs. It is de- fective in construction in many ways, being foggy, misleading and false.

It could with advantage be dropped altogether in favour of another divorce reform Bill whichi has just passed all three readings In the House of Lords, and which is drawn up with admirabla clarity, conciseness and wisdom.

Tis the Bill to amend the Divorce Law i

"Scotland, and this was passed in the middle of April.

The people for whom this excel· lent law was prepared are the Scots only. Why should the Eng fish not benefit by it?

True, for hundreds of years the marriage laws of Scotland have been better than those of England, but why should not England at last catch up with Scotland?

Instead of Parlament having two divorce laws passed almost simultaneously, a good, clearly worded one for Scotland and à bad, confused and stupid one for England, why should not the Scottish model be adopted by the English?

What we need is a good divorce law

S it is now worded it so that health und happiness may be confuses the

issue, the lots of as many as possible of our

and introduces a new population. and shockingly reactionary principle to the English Statute

Book, a principle which is utterly out of keeping with the modern spirit of the times..

It may seem a pitiablo thing that the established freedom of the English can only be saved by the Lords from 'shackles imposed on it by the Commons, but this is the present situation,

pass The B will probably the second reading in the Lorda

Men And Their Old Clothes

Wo

onc.

all women) are ready to undergo any Distinction in Tatters but the minimum of hardship for the sake of appearances.

Un-

To-day's Thought ...................

liko

be- MARRIAGE is

leaguered fortress: those who are without want to get in, and those within want to get out.

--QUITARD.

So is it with those other uniforms of sport; the faded cricket blazer, the threndbare veivel egp with the gold tassel which was ours on reaching the first XV., the delightful old coats with ragged sleeves and torn pockets, the conts in which we play golf, the out- fits in which skilled ski-lers ski.

Those who go hunting

may be many things, but one thing they are not-poor. The purchase each seu- son of a new red coat for the hunt- field would involve not the

enunciated some time back that no film incidents must show the use of weapons of this type. To the cinema-goer, this rule is fool." But that is hardly the atti- tude adopted by modern people ish to the point of absurdity, our divorce laws are the cruel- No-one is deceived by this trans. lest in the civilised world as it is. parent attempt to divest crime stories of criminal action. The pretence that no arms are actu- ally utilised in no wise disposes the fact that they are. Chief criticism of the policy followed by the film censors is that it re- sults in spoiling pictures without in any way succeeding in repress-

JOMEN have never been able to conditionally. A woman can, indeed, and third year men perambulated the ing ing the atmosphere with which

grasp inan's belief in the peculiar be clean, spruce, and comfortable; a streets in academle tatters, their caps slightest hardship for nine huntsmen films of this kind are invested. excellence of old clothes. A cleanly man seldom 50, Comfort, therefore, bereft of stiffening altogether. It was out of ten. Yet it is the old, old and untattered mein, It is pointed is the first and the most obvious rea- with the aim of being taken for one coat, the faded coat, the torn coat, the of these that the freshman destroyed mud-spotted cont which is preferred.

Why? Because it is The censoring of the film, out, need not be an uncomfortable son for the wearing of old clothes.

It is like possessing a new car.

the pristine shame of his dress,

a vanity, and The ragged, dusty COWT, til the first half-dozen scars

the symbol of seniority, of experience, of "China Seas," was a glaring in-

But comfort is not altogether the scratches have extended to the second mortarboard like a tam-o'-shanter, very male mannishness. stance of this effect. So bent point, although let it be said that the half-dozen and until the whole aspect these were symbols of experience.

inincing care, the precision of move-of wear and tear has become a fami- They were vanity. Moreover, they Autobiographies in Flannel were the censors on removing ment, the continual vigilance which itar part of the possession, we do not were masculine vanity, an almost ag

Our old clothes are written over allegedly harmful factors that are necessary to preserve the aspect enjoy that motor-car. It is a respon-resive gesture against effeminacy.

of a newly-creased and cleaned pair sibility, a worry, an embarrassment. A "Frightful Ruffian"

with our history; they are the auto- the central incident of the pro- of trousers do very definitely make It is ours only with reservations.

biogragraphles of our practical life. for discomfort, and few men (unlike)

Men are sentimental. They look duction, a piracy, was cut com-

Women undergraduates at Oxford, backwards with tenderness, I have a pletely out. The consequence

however semor they may be, do not pair of flannel trousers which I have So with a new suit. Until the destroy their caps and gowns. The only to pull on to experience a dozen was that the tale was rendered

trousers are so baggy that it will not vanity of women reflects itself pleasing

hey have been reflections. They Male and female standards of com- hurt them to be considerably batgier conscious love of new, neat clothes, washed and washed, but the green absolutely unintelligible to the tort are, Moreover, of different we are not at our ense,

nimost anxious paint which spilled, that afternoon We are that of men in an

scorn for them.

when I decorated the audience. Instead of a well-quality. A woman assesses comfort,hampered in our activities.

bathroom re as the maximum of bodily case con-

Sport, of course, gives man his mains. There is the oil-stain, token knit story, all that cinema-goers sistent with the current mode of not on paths; we must adopt aloof to look an important sloven. I re- pleasantly acquired, a

We must walk on pavements and greatest scope for exercising his fancy of fun with the car. There are tears small, round got was a series of seemingly un-social and fashionable discipline, and curved attitudes when flooding member once taking a young lady to hole which was burnt in related incidents. The methods Comfort to a man, on the other hand, our carburettors: we are debarred Henley. The first person she saw that night, five years ago, when I let

is the maximum of bodily ense, un- from the pleasures of the pasture; we was a very prominent rowing mail a match fall in my anxiety to

to seize must sit employed by the censors are not

with circumspection and He was dressed in a a pair of very the hand of the lady, who is now my never sprawl; we are in continual grubby white trousers (the thick, wife. The seat of these trousers is fair either to the cinemas or to

conciousness of our elbows, cuts, wide, woolly kind), an old

blue thin; it has been worn so, not upon the public. It surely cannot be on the ground that they might and trousers seats when writing let-waistcoat with a single brass button, elly stools, but upon the seats of ters or working at our offices. We a pink scarf round his neck, and a bonts, on seashore rock, on hillsides, argued that cinema audiences, or conduce to the spread of mar- are, in fact, submitted to a fairly con- faded pink cap upon his head. "What in gardens.

tinual taboo of one kind or another frightful looking persons whose attention is at-ital discord! The fact is that should our clothes be new and clean. claimed, "What on earth is he doing of these trousers which fit

"she ex- ruffan,"

I think with tenderness, Indeed; tracted by film posters, are of our film censors are making a Yet comfort is not altogether the here?" 1 explained 115 best as I was well (1 know their every little trick),

point. Other important factors the criminal type on the look-laughing-stock of the Colony. Into the ease. Vantly, for instanter able. He was a rowing man of note, which it is always a delight to ns-

would not which I of great note-you could assume that sume, out for new technique and are Our own view is that the in-Yes, vanity, for I hold that the truly from his clothes. "But why she change for all the ferns in suburbia. vain man is not he was who usurps asked, "the grubby Hitle rag round this be said. Little.as most of likely, when seeing films and fluence of the cinema on crima woman's prerogative by a self-con- his neck?" "That," I explained with us like new clothes, loath though we scious, fashionable, and up-to-date hauteur, Is a Leander scarf. Like are to wear them with any frequency, posters, to pick up aids to the is oxaggerated, but if the presence, but the man who wears his wise, the thing upon his head is a there are occasions when, almost simpering with pleasure, we don a carrying out of their nefarious authorities think otherwise, and old clothes as though they were a Leander cop."

badge, a symbol of seniority and of

Such an ouißt spoke with impres new spring suit, or new winter cont, work. If the process of film-have any qualms about the mat-achievement.

alve power, to those who knew about and set out about the town feeling When I was at Cambridge it was such things. It was a uniform of ladies men. But we feel thus only

of very

much tile gentlemen and cutting, with a view to removing ter, the public would far rather

to hon

honour, Ita disrepair was the possibly objectionable features, they banned certain types of "break his board" and engineer a sur- honourable disrepair of muscular ex-after we have worn, and worn those were carried to its logical limits, films altogether than to em- reptitious tear or two in his gown on perience. It carried the scars of long old clothes of ours, when we emerge the assumption that the more dis-and skilful watermanship. The man from these comfortable chrysaliser dress the who wore 11 had done so for many to be awkward, It happy, butterflies of domestic quarrels asculate them to the point of reputable your academic

He was, more comfortable and familiar you seasons.

therefore, high | for a day.

C. Gordon Glover. might just as well be eliminated, absurdity.

were with your surroundings. Second among his kind.

scenes

fashionable for the

freshman

Let

the

cinemu

me 50

Ex-