He has just appropriated money for the payment of the staff of the Office of the Censorship of Publications. I recognise the difficulty, but all I am asking is that it ought not to be beyond our joint genius to prevent a book such as Graham Greene's last novel being condemned as indecent in its general tendency. Then when the attention of the Censorship Board is directed to the fact that that is a very grotesque finding, instead of standing their ground and saying that, in any case, it seemed indecent to them, they promptly take the book out of the ashcan and restore it to circulation. I have got the feeling that such an action makes their whole censorship grotesque and that it evokes public distrust. This whole question of censorship is a difficult one. I have never heard anyone yet successfully maintaining the proposition that any form of filth which people try to dump on us should be accepted. I do not think that anybody could effectively make that case though it is extremely easy to make a powerful case against any form of censorship, and it is a case which appeals very strongly to the unsophisticated mind and very often most strongly to the most highly sophisticated mind. It is, therefore, of very considerable importance that if Oireachtas Éireann has decided in principle to accept the censorship of books Oireachtas Éireann should keep its eye jealously on the administration of that most dangerous power so as to see that it is, first of all, conducted with propriety and with due regard to human liberty, and it should also have some realisation of the peril of bringing censorship into universal and incontrovertible ridicule. I fully appreciate the difficulties with which the Minister has to contend and I sympathise with him. His predecessor and his predecessor's predecessor met with the same difficulties, and were the Minister to say to me: "All we can do is to appoint the best men we can find and leave them to act accordingly. Can you propose a better way?"—I am not so sure that I could do it. I would not be able to answer him off the cuff, but by hopping and trotting I think we should be able to evolve some device which would ensure hereafter that novels widely acclaimed by Christian audiences were not foolishly condemned only to be reinstated after a very cursory examination. The books which secure the acclamation of so large a body of Christian people as the American Catholic Book of the Month Club should not be stigmatised in this country.
Lastly, in regard to the novel of Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu the Board of Censorship should not put upon so law-abiding citizens as myself the obligation of wasting the present Minister for Justice's time and patience by applying to him for ad hoc licences to bring in the sixth volume of that work. Is there any reason in a Censorship Board prohibiting the sale in this country of Le Temps Retrouve? They might in some shape of prudence or propriety have mentioned other novels in that sextet of classics. Do you not think, Sir, that it is necessary if we are voting on a Censorship Board to try and overcome the universal reluctance of Deputies and Senators to mention a word on censorship for fear they would get eaten? It is a serious thing to do so. There are two great dangers in talking about censorship. One is that one may be praised in the leading article of the Irish Times and that is ruinous politically and the other is that you may be misunderstood by some of your more obscurantist neighbours and that requires vigorous action in the ecclesiastical arena. I propose boldly to pursue a course between Scylla and Charybdis. I am not prepared for the moment to indict the Minister for Justice. I am quite satisfied he is as anxious to see reason prevail in this matter as I am.
I do not think it is any harm to direct attention to certain of the absurdities to which I have referred not for the purpose of condemning in general principles the censorship because after very long and anxious thought I have come to the conclusion that in a civilised community one has to accept the need of the right to prevent the promiscuous distribution of pornography amongst ourselves, not amongst our betters or our inferiors but amongst ourselves. In accepting that right I think the duty is heavily upon us to see that the powers granted are moderately and prudently administered and to protect our people from legitimate scandal-taking, if such a board by its actions suggests that some of its decisions have been capricious and so much so that on their being questioned they were almost immediately reversed.
