Wanted—More Entertainment
It is all to the good that an Entertainments National Service Association has been set up for the benefit of the forces, with Sir Seymour Hicks as controller and Mr. Basil Dean as director of entertainments for the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. But if plays, concerts and cinemas are good for the troops—as they certainly are—they are good also for the rest of the people, who are all engaged in one way or another in our ubiquitous war. It is embarrass- ing to know that whilst theatres and cinemas are open in Warsaw within a few miles of the front line, British citizens in the larger towns are denied such refreshment, and actors and actresses who are anxious to carry on are thrown out of work. Even the danger has been exaggerated. Is it not a fact that in any given vulnerable zone, where no particular point is a target aimed at, 50,000 people in 50 places are in no greater danger individually than the same number dispersed? But even if it were not so it would still be a mistake to deprive the public altogether of the hearten- ing influence of the theatre and other entertainments. Equity has already been organising its members with a view to accepting engagements wherever they may be required, and the managers are ready on their ,side. No time should be lost in entrusting the war-time theatre to the regulation of the London Theatre Council, Which would act as a depart- ment of the Civil Defence Administration.
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