THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE submitted to the House of Commons
Select Committee on the Obscene Publications Bill make marvellously funny reading to anybody who does not worry about the fact that a remarkable degree of cen- sorship is being exercised, in fact though not in name, over books published or sold in this country. In his evidence Sir Frank Newsam wriggled himself into fantastic contortions in order to maintain that the Home Office never puts pressure on the police to widen the range of prosecutions for alleged obscenity. Sir Frank maintained that the forty-nine cases received by the Director of Public Prosecutions from the Home Office during 1956 were not recommenda- tions to action by the Mime Office.
The Director of Public Prosecutions says in his Memorandum that 49 cases were received from the Home Office?—Not with a recom- mendation, but for consideration.
Without any comment?—Without comment.
But at the same time surely the act of sending them to him is tacitly a recommendation for prosecution in itself?—I do not agree with you. We do not make any recommendation of any suggestion for prosecution.
What on earth could the assumption be, in the mind of the Director of Public Prosecutions, when he received forty-nine comment-less cases from the Home Office, other than that these were selected as particularly worthy, in the Home Office's opinion, of prosecution?
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