Evening star., 1923-08-22
BY THE MARaUIsE DE 'FoNTEs or o.

Ri THE MAHQU1SE DE E'FONTENOfI
1t has always been a boast in
Great Britain that citizens house
was his castle and therefore inyio-
late from intrusion by officers of the
law, except when they are equipped
with a judicial warrant, only granted
on prima facie evidence of crime or
on the strength of court order for
the attachment of property contained
IN the house for the benefit of judg-
ment creditors. But the government
is demanding of parliament at West
minister the enactment of a measure
known as the criminal justice bill,
which is meeting with little, opposi-
tion and is generally approved, save
in one particular. Strong exception
is taken to clause 19, which gives TO
the police the right OF search without
warrant for obscene literature, the
attorney general and the solicitor
general-that is to say, the great law
oHlcers or the crown and of the ad-
ministration-who are plotting the
criminal justice bill through the ma :
tlonal legislature. taking the ground
that the privileges of the private citi-
zen can only be tolerated and recog-
cned with duty TO the state.
: x y
Not only the traffic in erotic litera-
ture, but even the possession thereof,
is a punishable offense against the
law of the land, fact of which many
people on both sides of the Atlantic
seem to be ignorant. For the posses
sion of works of this nature and of so
demoralizing character involves
their acquisition and, therefore, traf-
fic, the purchaser being quite as
reprehensible as the vender. Statis-
tics obtained by the authorities and
also by the various recognized socie-
ties for the suppression of vice fur
nish abundant evidence that the trade
of obscene literature, in print and
picture. despite all the efforts to sup
press 1T, is growing by leaps and
bounds, while, in certain countries
of continental Europe, 1T has attained
perfectly appalling proportions, ow-
ing to the failure to enforce restric-
tions. Its effect on the popular mind
is to be found in the ever-increasing e
demand. by a considerable section of
the public, for cinema pictures of the
same kind. a demand with which the
promoters and magnates of the repus
table; movie concerns have to con-
tend.
X II
The British government and its
great law officers and advisers are
perfectly right in their contention
that the rights of a citizen can only
be allowed as long as they do not
conflict with the duty to the state.
Still, 1t cannot be denied that the
authority to search private houses for
obscene literature, without judicial
warrant, is q measure nothing short
of revolutionary, and that may lend
itself to the gravest abuses. 1t vir-
tually enables any police officer in
the big cities. or of the privincial
and rural constabulary, or any agent
of the societies for suppression of
vice who happen to be invested with
police powers. to enter any private
house, at any time of the day or
night, to subject it to search from
cellar to garret for indecent litera-
ture.
Moreover, since the greatest differ
ence OF opinion, even among the
judiciary and magistracy, exists as
to what Is obscene and what is not,
and some of the greatest literature
of the world, dating from ancient
times when much broader ideas
about propriety prevailed than in this
twentieth century Is quite the re-
verse of prudish, it is easy to see
that endless disputes will ensue. in
volving scholars and celebrated men
OF letters. in resistance to the officers
of the law. and even in hand-to-
hand conflict, injurious to their dig
nifty.
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