So far from complaining about censorship, the news-reel companies welcome the co-opera tion with the Ministry. None of them has said so, but there is no doubt that they feel that future attacks can be most adequately met if the Ministry has approved their films, Although the newsreels are exempt from the unofficial censorship of the British Board of Film Censors, they have always, from the time when newsreels were first distributed, been careful in seeking the ce-operation and goodwill of Government departments, Sir Gordon Craig, of British Movietone News, said that this concatenation of dates was unfortunate but not significant, The first request left the news-reel companies to understand that special copies would have to be printed for the Ministry. This would have cost each company £10 each Monday and Thursday. Sir Kenneth Clark learnt of this difficulty and repeated the request with a suggestion that he should see copies printed for West End cinemas in time for them to be sent on in the ordinary The companies then agreed without question, It is interesting that a new censorship storm should have been provoked by a Paramount reel, even though the storm would seem to have little substance. Paramount has been the live-hest of the British news-reels for some years and it has been subject to unofficial pressure—sometimes from the highest Government quarters—on four or five occasions.
Many filmgoers who have been impatient for years of the timidity of British news-reels will be sorry if the new explicit ce-operation with a Ministry does in fact lead to a closer censorship, though at the same time they admit that an. avowed censorship is preferable to unadmitted pressure.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.