10. Mr. HALL-CALNEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the number of films which have recently been exhibited in this country showing scenes which have involved cruelty to wild animals, he will consider the desirability of taking steps to obtain the necessary powers which would enable him to prevent the exhibition of such films if thought desirable?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Douglas Hacking)I understand that the British Board of Film Censors make a practice of not passing any film depicting cruelty to animals and that they have rejected several films in which restraint amounting to cruelty appeared to have been used. Moreover, any cinemato- 2042 graph licensing authority is entitled to impose conditions on licensees enabling it to forbid the exhibition of a film offensive to public feeling. My right hon. Friend is satisfied that the existing powers of control over the exhibition of films are sufficient and I would add that misleading sensational accounts of a film are sometimes published, based on the film as it was before the censors had deleted the objectionable portions.
§ Mr. DAVID GRENFELLHave the Department any jurisdiction over the conditions under which the films are made? Films are sometimes depicted as genuine pictures when they have been taken under entirely different conditions, and there must have been a great strain upon the animals taking part?
§ Mr. HACKINGObviously, we have no control over the manufacture of films made abroad.