Boycott of American Cinemas May Be Declared Canton, Sept. 1.
The possibility of a general boycott being declared against all American cinema films looms as the deadlock inthe censorship tax controversy continues.
Cinema owners are seeking the assistance of the Municipal Government fand the latter are understood to have agreed to take up the matter with the American consular authorities.
At a joint meeting of cinema owners to-day, It, was decided that, Gistributors of American films persist In their refusal to pay the censorship fee of $3 a reel demanded by the Canton Cinema Censors Board, all theatres will take united action' and. boycott American films.
Tt Is pointed out that Chinese pic tures are becoming increasingly popu-Jar, and, with British, German and Russian Alms to be obtained, the boy-cot would not cause the theatre owners much embarrassment.
The controversy became acute some weeks ago when the Canton Cinema Censors Board decided to refuse in future to examine Paramount pie-tures, which are distributed in China by Paramount Films of China, Inc. This decision had the effect of ex cluding Paramount films from exhibition in Canton, as cinemas here are not permitted to show any picture Which has not been examined and approved by the censors.
The action of the Censors Boara. was taken on the ground that Paramount Films of China, Inc, refused to pay the censorship fee demanded by the local authorities. The film company, however, pointed out that a censorship fee was already being paid to the censorship board at Nanking, and contended that the fee demanded by the Canton officials should be paid by the theatres themselves—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.