The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-21
SHELVING HE NIKADO. 1
BRITISH CENsOR's ACT.
Beautiful Opera with Jap anese Setting Tabooed
 in England.

III G1IS1dI4us
 No one but w. $. Gilbert could real ly do justice to the Lord Chamber lains inhibition of "The Mikado." Obtuseness in high station has always been his favorite sport, yet none of his Lord Chancellors or Lords of the Ad or police constables, the entire house miralty, major generals, magistrates ot lords, ever gave him more delicious opportunity than is offered by this monumental British blunderer.
 The witty and beautiful little opera has been played and sung all over the world for a score of years without of- fence to the most delicate sensibilities. The scene is laid in a suppositious Japan, as it might have been laid in Barataria or Sulu or Arcadia, with equal suggestion of reality. Except for the pretty costumes the action is even farther away from Japan than is Sul- livan's delightful English music, and if the Japanese have the sense of humor that their artists credit them with they have doubtless enjoyed the fun as much as anybody. Certainly it never has occurred to any one of them that it embodied an affront to their august institutions.
 This was left to the imagination of that wonderful person who. presides over the destinies of the British stage, and it has taken him all these years to reach the momentous discovery. Great Britain and Japan being now allies the ally must be treated with becoming respect The Mikado' is disrespectful; therefore, 1t cannot be allowed.
 The absurdity of such an edlct is rendered almost serious by the royal authority it bears. When once it has been officially proclaimed, though no one ever thought of it before, that "The Mikado' is inconsistent with the ''entente, it is evident that its per formance never can be allowed again, except by International agreement. since the government would thus be- come accessory to a recognized af- front. The situation is like that created by the Presidents letter about the Japanese children in the San Francisco schools. The President having pronounced the school law an insult to Japan, diplomatic repre- sentatives, notifications of the law and treaty agreements were necessary to preserve peace. Similarly, The Mikado" must be modified to the ex- embassy before the lord chamberlain can withdraw his inhibition.
 The pertinent suggestion has been made in London that the play of Hamlet" presents in a most unfavor- able, not to say offensive light the royal house of Denmark, with which Great Britain is knit by the very closest ties, and that the lord cham berIain should suppress 1t. His au thorty has been evoked against a new operetta which it is feared may be dis tasteful to the German imperial fam fly. Some such process of exclusive censorship has been going on in this country. We have not yet extended its protection to royalty nor to Asiat- ics, but most European national!ties, except the English, are defended from humorous exploitation on the stage.
 The stage Irishman, so called, is al- ready taboo, or appears only at risk of melting to riot There is strong movement for the suppression of the stage "Dutchman, Other long-fami liar figures, equally remote from life, are similarly opposed. But recently a play which was thought to be obnoxi- ous to our fellow citizens of African descent was forbidden by authority. It would be obviously improper, in our present delicate relations, to allow a playwright to make sport of Cpbans or Central Americans and so on. If a | like protection is to be extended to our Oriental friends, including the in genuous Chinese, the stage will be gradually excluded from all mundane scenes and confined to purely ethereal distractions. The dramatist will be spfe only on Prospero's enchanted isl- and, in MT. Howells Altruria or in the no-man's land of Maeterlnckian sym bolism. Yet even there the folly of a British licenser of plays might find him out.-Philadelphia Public Ledger.