§ 43. Mr. Wingfield Digbyasked the Attorney-General whether he will require the Director of Public Prosecutions, in cases where he is instituting proceedings against publishers and booksellers of books first published more than 100 years ago, to proceed under Section 2 of the Obscene Publications Act, 1959, providing for trial by jury, rather than under Section 3.
§ The Attorney-General (Sir John Hobson)No. The date of first publication of a work is irrelevant to the question whether proceedings in respect of it should be taken under Section 2 or under Section 3 of the 1959 Act.
§ Mr. DigbyIs my right hon. and learned Friend aware that there is now considerable confusion when a book like Fanny Hill is thought to be 33 undesirable in one part of the country but not in another? Is it not undesirable that old books, of which it could be argued that they have some historical and literary merit, should attract all the attention when a great deal of modern pornography, which does not have such arguments in its favour, does not receive enough attention?
§ The Attorney-GeneralWith regard to Fanny Hill; whether it is prosecuted before a jury or not, under Section 2, does not mean that it becomes a prohibited book for the whole country. A conviction by jury has no more effect on the publication by the individual and is no more extensive in controlling other publications than would be a conviction before a magistrate. While there may be some works of antiquity which may have a historical interest, there are others in which vintage obscenity still remains obscene. The question whether it should be proceeded against before a jury or magistrate must remain to be decided on the merits of the individual case and not solely on the date of the publication of the work.
§ Mr. LiptonIs anything being done about the English translation used by schoolboys of Petronius's Satyricon? Are we getting to that yet?
§ The Attorney-GeneralNot that I am aware of.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithIn view of the publication last week of the B.M.A.'s booklet on young people's morals, would not my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the more controls there are against near-pornography the better?
§ The Attorney-GeneralOne of the difficulties of all prosecutions is that they sometimes attract a great deal of attention to a work which is better left to look after itself.