The Threat to British Films
It is of great importance that the President of the Board of Trade should not take any hasty steps which would stop the production of British films. Mr. Oliver Stanley announced some time ago that he proposed to suspend the Film Quota Act, which requires that a certain proportion of British films should be shown in British cinemas. If this step were taken without any effective restriction on imported foreign films a blow would be dealt at British production from which the industry would not recover for many years after the ending of war. In the last war America established its predominance, and to this day the British industry has not made up what it lost then. Though British culture can hardly be said to find its highest expression in the films, none the less it has at least the merit of being British, and in recent years there have been great improvements in pro- duction. Mr. Stanley should remember that the cinema will be needed in war-time, and it ought not to be a Hollywood monopoly.
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