NOT SO QUIET

In contrast to the point of view expressed by the Harvard graduate in this morning's CRIMSON, is the attitude of Oswald Garrison Villard regarding the suppression in Germany of "All Quiet on the Western Front." Villard found the German nation seething with militarism and discontent, ready to seize the film, which most foreigners have regarded as not in the least derogatory to the German character, as a means of propaganda against the Government in the time of a national crisis. Seen from this angle the censorship would appear like a weak surrender to the demagogues of the Hitlerite gang at a moment when the Reich needed, as never before, to present a firm front to its citizens and the world.

While different writers can delve into various causes for the suppression, as patriotic spirit and Hitlerite militarism, the closing of the theatres can also be regarded as a perfectly logical means of preserving public peace. If the film produced a riot in which spectators were occasionally killed, every-time it was shown, the Government was entirely justified in placing it under a bane, despite the howling of the foreign press.