MR. BELLOC'S POLITICAL SATIRE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your issue of October 29th I find a review, pre- sumably sanctioned by you, of Mr. Hilaire Belloc's latest volume of essays. Among the political satires" the one you single out for notice and from which you quote an extract is the Manifesto of the Simian League in favour of removing the disabilities of monkeys. With Mr. Belloc's sense of humour I have no concern. If, being born of woman, it pleases him to compare women to monkeys, comment seems unnecessary; but that a paper of such high standing as yours should in the fervour of its opposition to women's suffrage be .led to quote this essay, not to pillory but to approve, is a painful surprise to many who, like myself, constant readers of the Spectator, have admired the courtesy which has hitherto
Emery Down, Lyndhurst, Hants.
B. E. SHORE.
[We do not approve of Mr. Belloc's analogue, but think it distinctly wanting both in taste and argument. We must protest, however, against the monstrous suggestion that a reviewer cannot give a true account of the contents of a book lest he may hurt the feelings of some of the readers of the newspaper in which he writes. That would indeed be to impose a censorship. When we deal with the suffrage question it will be on our own lines, and they are poles apart from those of Mr. Belloc. Meantime we are not going to allow ourselves to be intimidated in the matter of literary criticism by super- sensitive advocates of the suffrage movement.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
