ties. No doubt this spot was suitably pointed out to Mr. George Bernard Shaw the other day when the was received into the Livery of that four-hundred-year-old company. Mr. Shaw himself may not have attained to the dignity of having his books burnt: but he Knows the commercial advantage of having a play banned by the censor. He also knows that the Soviet' Government, which ttully has his admiration, is alert in mining the literature carried by travellers within its territory. A distinguished Shanghailander, returning here by the Siberian route, not long ago, found that his copy. of Culbertson "On Contract Bridge" narrowly escaped confiscation at Russian hands. Probably it was thought to contain sinister re-factions on the progress of the Like the Government of t.dia and other august authorities, the Chinese Government applies the ban on books by means of notifica tion under the Customs administra tion. Thereby literature held to be harmful for residents in China to peruse is prevented from "entry into China." No doubt experience will indicate the extent to which this: method of procedure is effec tive in achieving the purpose of the ban, In India the process has led to some awkward situations, as for example when it was found that among the books on the index expyrgatorius was written by one whom the whirligig of time had revengefully made Prime Min'ster of England. More than one author has blessed the frown of Simla snd Delhi for it has turned a strusaling first edition into a triumphant precursor of several "impressions," as the publishers say. The into Lord Brentford gave Miss Radcivfte Halla profitable advertisement when he took action to clear "The Well of Loneliness" off English bookstalls. The United State: of. America has tried its hand at banning with sometimes unexpreted results. It is too early yet to nay what fortune has attended the Nazi policy of whole-hearted banning. In Japan it is popularly supposed that "dangerous thoughts" come under official correction when enshrined in the printed pages of a book. Yet the traveller in Japan will find ready to hand bookshops which "dangerous thoughts" can be read and, what is crore, purchased without any apparent Tet or hindrance. The truth. of course, is that no authority can pretend to be consistent. The cir cumstances change. What dangerous to-day may be eminently safe to-morrow. Olympian though the mind of high authority may be, it seldom goes to the length of the Tory stalwart who concluded his attack on the Government's Indian policy in the House of (Continued on page 86.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.