Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 6 April 1933, page 13


FILM CENSORS

Defended by Minister.

CANBERRA, Wednesday |

The Film Censorship Board was defended by the Minister for Customs (Mr. White), in a statement Issued to-day. Mr. White said he Issued the statement In fairness to mem-bers of the censorship organisation.

The Minister said that Mr. Charles Chauvel, producer of the film "In the Wake of the Bounty," was reported to have referred to passages in that film which the censor had first deleted, and which would have remained out of the film li he and his colleagues had not engaged In a six months' struggle with the authorities. This inferred that Mr. Chauvel succeeded in retaining the parts of the film which were objected to. As a fact, of the eight eliminations made by the censorship, only three comparatively unimportant cuts were allowed by the appeal censor. This meant that the Censorship Board's decision was in the main upheld by the appeal authority.

After stating that Professor W. J. Dakin was stated to have said that if there had to be a censor, he should be a man who had travelled and who was widely read, the Min-ister reviewed the careers of members of the board, and added:

"Taken as a whole, It certainly cannot be said that the personnel of the censorship is lacking either In experience of the world and its peoples, or that It Is deficient In culture."