*London, Sept. 12.
The performance of Mr. Somerset Maugham's play, "East of Suez," was nearly prevented the other night by an objection on the part' of the Chinese actors to - being filmed.
Shortly after the curtain rose a deputation of Chinese told the management that they were unable to appear. Everybody was thunder struck, as apparently they were quite happy.
They explained that they detected the cinematographer filming the play during a special rehearsal for the purpose of photographing the company, and said that it was beneath their dignity to be screened, as a film without the spoken word would give a misleading impression of the play and show their race in a bad light.
They only consented to appear when the offending parts of the film were destroyed in their presence. This ended the crisis.—Reuter's Special Service.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.