[PROTESTS by the Accrington Purity Campaign and local clergy and Dissenting ministers had resulted in the Manchester Chief Constable’s ordering that 100ft of film be removed from a cinema film that was “immoral in its suggestiveness”, it had been reported the previous week.]

WE HEAR with much satisfaction that the campaign in the diocese of Manchester against the objectionable film to which we have already made reference is being maintained with vigour. At Blackburn the Chief Constable has prohibited its exhibition; at Preston, Halifax, and St Helens it has been condemned by authority, though in the last-named town the magistrates’ ruling has been disputed. In the Miles Platting district of Manchester it has not been able to stand against the pressure brought to bear upon it by the clergy and the dissenting ministers. At Bolton, the vicar having raised a protest, the Chief Constable is considering the matter; but at Bury the agitation against it has failed, and at Heywood the film has been exhibited, apparently without protest. In this connexion it is of importance to press for an answer to the question, “What is the British Board of Film Censors?” As we are informed, it has no official standing under the Government. It represents the film company or companies, and consequently its certificate on the screen is without a particle of value, to say nothing of its misleading nature. If it is necessary to have a Government Censor of Plays, such an official is even more needed in the case of the films, the influence of which extends over a much wider area than that affected by the drama.

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