Sunday Cinemas
The Government is to be commended for its decision to introduce a new Sunday Performances Bill. The measure proposes first of all to do what we suggested last week—namely, to free all museums, zoos and debates from the fetters of the old Sunday Observance Act. No one can seriously object to such modest Sunday diversions as these. Sunday concerts, again, are to be licensed by the authorities which have the power to license concerts on week days, and again no opposition should be offered. As for the cinemas, the local authorities which now permit them to open on Sunday are to be given the full power to do so, which they thought— wrongly, as the courts held—that they already possessed. The towns or counties which have not yet agreed to the Sunday opening of cinemas may, if they choose, seek the permission of Parliament to do this by promoting private Bills under a simplified form of procedure. Thus the present position will remain unchanged unless the local authorities are pressed by their constituents to permit of more Sunday cinemas. A Bill on these lines will remove needless anomalies and bring the old law
into accord with modern practice. * * * *
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