Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-25
LIBERALS IN DESPAIR
Fear Prospects For a General
Election Next Year
STAGE CENSOR CENSURED
Gossip Over the Illness of Empero>
Francis Joseph.
KAISER TO VISIT PRINCE
Stir Over the Arrival of Turtles
From Queensland Franco
British Exhibition in 1908.


Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON. October IL 1907.
The prime minister's speech against tn
house of lords at Edinburgh has mad
many liberal members pull a wry face
for it means a general election next yea
or in the early months of the following
year, and the average member of parlia
ment is not fond of general elections. No
few liberals fear that the tide, whlcl
reached its height in 1905, Will recede il
1908. and leave them stranded on a col,
shore. Even ministerialists with SAT
seats are not anxious for an election. 70
the fear Of a labor candidate is Away
before their eyes, while to great man,
me mbers of the party an election Is a yer,
serious drain on their slender resources.
I am told that considerable number o
these members Will not seek reelection
But I am assured at the same time thai
there are plenty of candidates to tax.
their places. The immediate effect OF
"C.-B 8" speech Is, therefore. to caus,
considerable fiutterings in the liberia
dovecote. The whips are besieged Will
inquirers anxious to know when the gen
eral election will take place. That they
answer, depends on the lords. and thai
again. the shrewd liberal politician says
depends on Mr.. Balfour. If the conserv-
alive leader consults the rank and file OF
his party in the house of commons he
will use the lords to force an election next
year. for the position of the party could
hardly be worse than it is now.
The liberal whips. who profess to know
the mind of the country. declared at the
close of last session that the governmen nj
would come back with a majority slightly
decreased by three-co -nered fights with
labor candidates. But since then the
spe cches of the extreme labor men have
undoubtedly rallied many moderate mer
to the conservative side, who fear that
the government in the house of commons
at all events. is too much under the
thumb of the labor party
Stage Censor in Disfavor.
Dramatists and theatrical managers in
London are up in arms against the stage
censor or official licenser OF plays owing
to his vagares and restrictions. Every
play for presentation must first be sub
mitted to the licenser. who holds office
under the lord chamberlain. and from his
blue pencil or dictates there Is no appeal.
He may allow or disallow play. or cut
1t to pieces IL he sees fit. and what is
worrying managers now is that so many
vulgar and broad musical farces are per
mitted to be given on the London stage.
while other higher class productions. with
perhaps a delicate situation. are prohibit
ed or cut so as to make them useless.
Ihis has subjected the censor to open at
tack lately.
Within the past week, for instance. Mr.
BEDFORD. the official licenser. and all his
works have been subjected to q slashing
furious assault by Mr.. Garnett, the au-
thor of a play called THE Breaking
Point" The motive Of the play was a
delicate one. but. as the offended drama
fist pointed out, while a license was re-
fused for his play. another in which tbs
same theme was treated was performed
in London and the provinces by Miss
Lena Ashwell with considerable success.
The most moving scene in The Shula-
mite the play In question, was that liz
which the heroine pretends to believe, In
order to escape physical violence at her
husbands hands, that she is about to be-
come a mother. There is no minc.ng OF
words. but tine. fact is stated simply and
sincerely I'm natural language. Yet. when
womans agony of mind in similar cir
cumstances Is depicted in a play. as In
The Breaking Point" the censor refuses
his license. Why? No man can tell But
many interesting examples of the censor $
lack of logic and amusing inconsist ancy
might be pointed out.
At this moment some 10000 people at
least are crowd1ng each week to the Ly-
ceum Theater to see Mr.. Hall Gaines
play, THE Christian" and perhaps their
most vociferous applause Is reserved for
a scene in which the hero Father Storm
brings about the discontinue o. noto-
rious proeuress and owner of houses of
ill-fame and her male associate in evil.
Nevertheless. Mr.. Bernard Shaws re-
markable play, Mrs. Warren's Profess
SION" is forbidden public performance in
this country as immoral presumably
because the central figures are a woman
and a man employed in exactly the same
nefarious traffic az that of the wretched
IL t1at I,n ra; Ill
on the stage.
Banned by the Censor.
1t is perfectly safe to say that NJ
Maurice Maeterlinck that exquisite poet
Of the mystical world. has never written
an impure word in his life. His plays.
his poetry, and his prose alike are dis
tinguished by delicacy of thought, feel
ing and EXPIRE ssion which place him high
among European authors. All the same
his poetic drama Norma Wanna" the
most beautiful pay of the time as 1t
has been called. was banned by the censor
at about tie same time that he gave his
official sanction to the performance of
such gross indecency as The Girl from
Maxim s." as it is called by the Times.
Ostensibly the ban was imposed because
of a scene in which the heroine, the wife
of the general of the forces in a be-
tent. clad only in the cloak which is
wrapped about her. Her visit. in the
circumstances of the pay, Is pure in
motive and in spirit patriotic and noble
and the scene in the tent is full of dignity
and pathos. Yet the play is forbidden.
At the same time Maxine Elliott Is
nightly appearing in Under the Green
wood Tree in which the heroine one
of the most beautiful actresses on the
stage, insists on the fact. as she reclines
at full length on the greensward after
her dip in the river. that there was moth
ing under her coax save poor little me-"
to intervene.
In dealing with political matters as
they affect the stage. Mr. BEDFORD but
reflects the will of his superior. the 10 ID
chamberlain. Pressure from high quar-
tiers often affects the fortunes of plays
Ttus only recently the production of a
Gaiety comedy was held back for some
time so that satirical illusions to Kaiser
Wi helm might be deleted. The censor
public men. The late Lord Rando pm
Churchill was once held up to public
laughter from the stage until the lord
chamberlain representative gagged tire
comedian, soothing thereby tie irate
politician. Again, whole musical comedy
had to change its complexion because Il
certain eastern potentate. through II $
amba ssador. resented the lur. esqua o.
court life shown in it.
On the representations of tie Turkish
embassy, the lord chamb arlain forba &c
Harem" under that ailuring title. That
ingenious melodrama is beng played
exactly as before. only its name has been
altered to The Secrets of the III