It was learned in London recently that the five news-reel companies had agreed to submit to the Ministry of Information on release days—Mondays and Thursdays—copies of their reels. It was widely assumed at first that this was a new censorship and that it was connected in some way with Lord Denman's tabled motion in the Lords asking for "careful censorship" of newsreels.
Lord Denman's motion referred to a recent Paramount issue which dealt satirically with Miss Unity Mitford's home-coming and took a strong line against the dismissal of Mr, Hore-Belisha. These two items had also given rise to a sharp controversy in the correspondence columns of "The Times" in which readers had accused British Paramount News of "a flagrant breach of common decency." These letters. Had been countered vigorously by Mr. G. T. Cummins, Paramount's editor, who complained of "damaging misstatements."
Both the Ministry of Information and the Newsreel Association (which represents all the companies) denied emphatically that there was any question of censorship. The News-reel Association have issued the following statement:
At a meeting between Sir Kenneth Clark, the Director of Film Publicity, and the Council of the News-reel Association, Sir Kenneth expressed his earnest desire to render every possible assistance to the news-reel companies.
To that end, he said it would be helpful if the news-reel companies would let him sec each edition of the news films in the Ministry's theatre each Monday and Thursday—i.e., after they have been issued to the cinemas—to save him the inconvenience of having to visit five different cinemas for this purpose, Naturally, this request was readily conceded, The question of censorship Cid not, and does not, arise, and any statement to the contrary is erroneous, It is certain that censorship in the circumstances would be difficult, for the news-reels will not be seen until ten o'clock on the morning of their release. By this time they would already be on their way all over Britain, The producing companies could send telegrams to theatres asking them to cut items on arrival, but the Ministry would have to make a strong case for them to go to this trouble.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.