SUNDAY CINEMAS
[To the Editor Of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Mr. George Lansbury asks for reasons against the Sunday opening of cinemas. I will give I Ear, brief, blunt, and logical.
First.—Continuous trading with no break for Sundays has been illegal for a long period. It is grossly unfair to the dealer, either in commodities or amusements, who " plays the game " and opens only six days a week. Such an unfair concession, if granted by law, should be subject to a very heavy licence. which should go to the relief of the local rates, also hospitals and dispensaries.
Second.—Seven days trading in either commodities or amuse- ments entails a prodigious amount of labour upon those to whom Sunday is the most prized day for rest and home life.
Third.—Seven (or seventy) days of the continuous crowding of people into any building, cinema or otherwise, is insanitary in the highest degree. It is impossible in so brief a tune as the building is empty to carry out effective cleansing of the floors and the purification of the air. If Mr. Lansbury has smelt the smells or carried away the noxious microbes in his throat, as I have done in a cinema open for weeks continuously, he will agree with this.
Fourth and Greatest.—No man, not even Mr. Lansbury, can say that any class, high or low, in this country are starved for lack of amusement. We are all obsessed to an alarming extent with a craze for amusement. On the contrary, we are starving for the mental rest, the moral and spiritual culture, which the Sabbath offers. Reading, writing, a restful home life and reli- gion, are shamefully crowded out of our lives. Religious culture and worship are of tremendous importance, but the cinema will have none of it in its seven days money-making. " Where there is no vision the people.perish."—I am; Sir, '
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