Taxes on Art The exemption of the Old Vie and
Sadler's Wells theatres from entertainment duty ought to be universally approved. Their peculiarities are many. They are con- trolled by a Charity Commission scheme ; their prices must be such as an artisan can pay ; and the work they have done, whether in Shakespeare, opera or ballet, has beyond question been educational in the highest sense. Without entertainment duty they can barely balance income and outgoings ; and that the State should go on trying to kill such an enterprise by heavily taxing it had really become intolerable. But what of other cases ? The claims of the Stratford-on- Avon Theatre, the Open-Air Theatre, and of various Repertory Theatres, are all very strong. What, again, of music ? Apart from the B.B.C. no orchestral concerts in London pay ; the tax comes not out of the takings, but out of the pockets of generous supporters. Smaller con- certs are being extinguished. High-class chamber music is - much rarer in Central London than it was before the War. The tax has-killed it ; and that at a time when, thanks to the gramophone, there is a• wider taste for it than there used to be.
Previous page
