1937-07-27 — Page 6

V

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

Dewar's

WHITE LABEL

THE

WHISKY OF

White Label LAT SCOTCH WHIS

OF GREAT AGE

Dewar & So

Som PERT

DISTALERS

DISTINCTION.

A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.

NEW "H.M.V”

VOCAL RECORDS

DB3158-Vosti la giubba ("| Pagliacci") ·

Beniamino Gigli,

Pagliacci mio marito-Sorenata d'Arlecchino. DA1514-Dio chro Gottes aus der Natur (Beethoven)

Ich liebe dich (Beathovan), DA1562-Wiegenlicd (Brahms, Op. 49, No. 4)

Coleste Aida (Verdi),

Kirsten Flagstad.

THE

PACKARD SIX

CLUB SEDAN FOR FIVE PASSENGERS

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

IS HERE That Must

"A TOP-QUALITY CAR"

LARGE AND ROOMY MODERATELY PRICED

Inspection and Triat Invited

D

OES "the man in the street" take enough trouble to keep an eye on the M.P. who is sup- posed

in to represent him Parliament?

It's difficult and tiring work, and I fear that the cyo which should be like the eye of a crab, able to revolve in all directions,

Hongkong Hotel far too often droops in weart-

Stubbs Rd.

Garage

SHOWROOM

The

Phone 27778-9

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, physiologically

Hongkong Telegraph.reactionary,

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1937.

FOOLISH FILM CENSORSHIP

A Shanghal journal, not with- out cause, recently indulged in

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 save them they will marry under the new medieval shackles, much more reaction-

Elisabeth Schumann. Immer foiser wird mein Schlummer (Brahms).

a little sarcastic humour atary than anything their parents

have ever even imagined? C2909—Lucia di Lammermoor (Mad Scene)....Lina Pagliught. Hongkong's expense inconnec Of course they neither realise

Splendon la sacro faci & Spargi d'amaro.

tion with methods employed by or know that Mr. A. P. Herbert has got his joke through on DB3049--Cho gelīda manina (La Bohome-Puccini)..Jussi Bjorling. Jour local film censors. Its com- them, and while professing to ments were based on the action"reform" the Divorce law, has bamboozled the House into taken to eliminate from cinema passing the following, that-- Nan Maryska.

posters and photographs all Walter Glynne,.dangerous weapons by the sim- ple process of pasting slips of white paper over reproductions

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

The Loss with the delicatè air (Arno).

88573-The Valley whore wishes come true

I'll walk beside you.

interesting

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

S.

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

enunciated some time back that

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

unless at the date of the presen- tation of the petition five years have passed since the date of the marriage."

(C

'A

GOOD thing, too! will comment some obscurantist, theo- persons,

no film incidents must show the logically minded use of weapons of this type. To there should be no divorce at

MOUTRIE & CO., LTD. the cinema-goer, this rule is fool-ull" But that is hardly the niti-

York Building

That 9 may live

Émation-glorious drama of a love

so steadfast that your heart exults!

with

ROCHELLE HUDSON: ROBERT KENT

Chater Road.

J. EDWARD BROMBERG

"I paid the penalty

for my mistake f

Executive Producer Sol M. Wurtzel

Now they want me for something I never did!"

Directed by Alion Chesn

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

must live...that we may layo!"

AT

TO-MORROW THE

QUEEN'S

tudo adopted by modern people our divorce laws are the cruel- lest in the civilised world as it is.

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

Men

Must Be STOPPED

says Dr.

Marie C. Stopes

Founder of the Mothers' Clinics

being tied for years to a spouse who has deserted or cruelly M1- trented them.

"What does it matter?" says 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 the plans and feelings of 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 unsulted 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 marrlage 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 this 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 generation 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 realiso the folly of this ave-- 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 men.

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

"Whereas it is expedient for the true support of marriage, the pro- tection of children, the removal of hardship, the reduction of filicit unlons and unseemly litigation, the relief of conscience among clergy, and the restoration of the respect for the law, that the Acts relating to marriage and divorce be amended;"

A

the

because como reform of our 'divorce laws is clearly necea- sary, It will then go into Com- mittee in the Lords,

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

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

F Jane and Joe marry because they want to have babies (and that

is the best renson of all for marriage) - but then find that they can never make a success of marriage, instead of being able in a friendly and kindly fashion to separate and ench 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 low will com- pel them to wait for the five best”. years of married life, wait while ́uttle wrinkles and crownfeet. grow round Jane's eyes, and she becomes much less likely to be able to find the right mate. The legislators who

simul- taneously cry out for higher birth rate and pass such a clause ns Cause I in this Blil, are either- stupid or treacherous.

The deletion of Clause I 'from Mr. Herbert's Bill is vital, but that- in 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 Blil which has just passed all three readings in the House of Lords, and which is drawn up with admirable clarity. conciseness and wisdom.

TT is tho Bill to amend the Divorce Law in "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- ilsh not benefit by it?

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

Instead of Parliament having two divorce laws passed almost simultaneously, a good, clearly worded one for Scotland and a 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 B it is now worded it so that health and happiness may be confuses the issue, the lots of os 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 pitiable 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.

The Bill will probably pags the second reading in the Lords

And Their Old Clothes

·To-day's Thought-

a be- MARRIAGE is like

leaguered fortress: those toho are without want to "pct" in, and those within want to vet out,

--QUITARD.

So is it with those other uniforms of sport; the faded cricket blazer, the threadbare velvet cap with the gold tassel which was ours on reaching the first XV., the delightful old coats with rugged sleeves and torn pockets, the coats in which we play golf, the out- fits in which skilled ski-iers skl.

Those who go hunting... may no many things, but one thing they are not-poor. The purchase cach

cach sea- son of a new red coat for the hunt- not the

ish to the point of absurdity. No-one is deceived by this trans- 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- ing the atmosphere with which WOMEN have never been able to conditionally. A woman can, indeed, and third year men perambulated the ing field would involve

grasp man's belief in the peculiar be clean, spruce, and comfortable; a streets in academic tatters, their caps slightest hardship for nine huntsmen excellence of old clothes, A cleanly man seldom so. Comfort, therefore, bereft of stiffening altogether. It was out of ten. Yet it is the old, old films of this kind are invested. xuntattered 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 coat which is preferred. 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. Un- c pristine shame of his dress. Why? Because it is a vanity, "China Sens," was a glaring in-

til the Arst half-dozen seats And The ragged, dusty gown, the symbol of seniority, of experience, of But comfort is not altogether the scratches have extended to the second mortarboard like a tam-o'-shanter, very male mannistiness. 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.

mincing care, the precision of move-of wear and tear has become a fama- They were vanity. Moreover, they Autobiographies in Flannel were the censors on removing ment, the continual vigilance which lar part of the possession, we do not were masculine vanity, an almost ag allegedly harmful factors that are necessary to preserve the aspect enjoy that motor-car. It is

gressive gesture against effeminacy. of a newly-creased and cleaned pair sibility, a worry, an embarrassment. A "Frightful-Ruffian” the central incident of the proof trousers do very definitely make It is ours only with reservations.

for discomfort, and few men (unlike all women) are ready to undergo any Distinction in Tatters but the minimura of hardship for the sake of appearances, ~

onc.

So with

respon-

duction, a piracy, was cut com- pletely out. The consequence

the a new suit. Until was that the tale was rendered absolutely unintelligible to the fort

Male and female standards of corn-trousers are so baggy that it will not hurt them to be considerably boggier are, morcover, of different we are not at our ease, We are audience. Instead of a well-quality. A woman assesses comfort hampered in our activities.

as the maximum of bodily case con-

We must walk on pavements and]

the

Ecorn for them.

i

30

Our old clothes are written over with our history; they are the auto- biogragraphies of our practical life.. Men are

sentimental. They look Women undergraduates at Oxford, backwards with tenderness. I have a however senior they may be, do not pair of founel trousers which I have destroy their caps and gowns. The only to pull on to experience a dozen vanity of women reflects itself in pleasing reflections. They have been conscious love of new, neat clothes, washed and washed, but the green that of men in an almost anxious paint which spilled that afternoon when decorated the bathroom re- Sport, of course, gives man his mains. There

the oil-stain, token knit story, all that cinema-goers | gistent with the current mode of not on paths; we must adopt aloof greatest ecope for exercising his fancy of fun with the ear. There are tears to look an important sloven. I re-pleasantly acquired, a 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 the cinema 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, Ave years ago, when I let is the maximum of bodily ease, un-front the pleasures of the pasture; we was a very prominent rowing man. a match fall in my anxiety to acizo employed by the censors are not.

must sit with circumspection and He was dressed in a pair of very the hand of the lady who is now my fair either to the cinemas or to

never sprawl; we are in continual grubby white trousers (the thick, wife. The seat of these trousers is consciousness of our elbows, cuffs, wide, westly kind), an old blue thin; it has been worn 30,, not upon the public. It surely cannot be on the ground that they might and trousers seats when writing lot waistcoat with a single brass button, city stools, but upon the seats of

ters or working at our offices. We argued that cinema audiences, or conduce to the spread of mar-are, in fact, submitted to

fairly con-

a pink scarf round his neck, and a boats, on seashore rock, on hillsides,,

looking frightful

ruman," persons whose attention is at-ital discord! The fact is that tinual taboo of one kind or another faded pink cap upon his head. "What in gardens.

1," she ex- I think with tenderness, Indeed, should our clothes be new and clean. clained, "What on earth is he doing ut these trousers which at me to." tracted by film posters, are of our film censors are making a Yet comfort is not allogether the here? I explained as best as I was well (I know Useir every little trick), the criminal type on the look-laughing-stock of the Colony.into the ease. Vanity, for instance, of great note-you could assume that sume, which would not ex-.

point. Other important factors enterable. He was a rowing man of note, which it is always a delight to be- out for new technique and are Our own view is that the in- van man is not he was who usurps asked, "the

vanity for I hold that the truly from his clothes. "But why," she change for all the ferns in suburbid,

Let this bo

Little as mort of said. likely, when seeing films and fluence of the cinema on crime woman's prerogative by a self-con-ce que ruby little rag Ind

I explained with ux like new clothes, loath though we acious, fashionable, and up-to-date hauteur, "Is a Leander scarf. Like-ace to wear them with posters, to pick up alds to the is exaggerated, but if the presence, but the man who wears his wise, the thing upon his head is a there are occasions when, almost

any frequency, carrying out of their nefarious authorities think otherwise, and old clothes as though they were a Leander cap.

simpering with pleasure wo-don bailge, a symbol of seniority and of work. If the process of film-[have any qualms about the mat-achievement.

Such an outfit spoke with impres-new spring suit, or new winter coat, alve power, to those who knew about and set out about the town feeling cutting, with a view to removing|ter, the public would for rather When I was nt Cambridge it was such things; it - was 'n uniform of very much little gentlemen

and fashionable for the freshman to honour. Its disrepair

the ladies men. But we feel thus only possibly objectionable features, they banned certain types of "break his board" and engineer & 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 teur or two in his gown on perlence. 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 chrysalinen scenes of domestic quarrels asculate them to the point of reputable your academie dress the who wore it had done so for many to be awkward, if happy, butterflies

more comfortable and familiar you seasons. He was, therefore, high for a day. might just as well bo eliminated, 'absurdity.

wore with your surroundings. Second 'among his kind.

a

G. Gordon Glover..