SIR, - --On May 23, 1949, Mr. Tom Dribcrg, during Question Time
in the House of Commons, asked the Attorney-General `what action he proposed to take in regard to the novel The Naked and the Dead.'
Sir Hartley Shawcross then told the House that after consultation with the Director of Public Prose-
rose- cutions, he had decided not to initiate prosecution— adding that he did so 'only where I consider that the protection of the public interest in a broad sense requires the law to be set in motion' Surely if the present Attorney-General were to make a similar statement in regard to' Lolita, a lot of quite unnecessary fuss would be, avoided?
Incidentally, Sir Hartley Shawcross added' to his statement in 1949 some words which it would be- come the present administration to endorse: 'It is important,' he said, 'that there should be the least possible interference with the freedom of pub- lication, and that the Attorney-General should not seek to make the criminal law a vehicle for imposing censorship on the frank discussion or portrayal of sordid and unedifying aspects of life simply on the grounds of offence against taste or manners.'—Yours faithfully, DEREK PARKER 187 Cathedral Road, Cardiff
[This correspondence is referred to in 'A Spectator's Notebook.'—Editor, Spectator.]
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