'HORROR COMICS' HIT THREE WAYS

Government Bill coincides with attacks in U.S. and Canada
THE Bill which the Government has introduced to abolish horror comics in this country coincides with iimilar campaigns in the United States and Canada, both directed by Catholic men.
In the U.S.A. the movement to abolish the comics is being directed by Judge Charles Murphy. A majority of publishers has undertaken to accept a code of his making.
In Cincinnati the other day a
triend asked Judge Murphy why he was so serious-looking.
"You'd took serious, too," he retorted. "if you had to read comic nooks all day."
In Canada, "a battling young lawyer." Mr. Jean Drapeate Montreal's new Mayor. declared: "The days of the pornographic sheets. sex papers and such like are numbered in Montreal.
"I want all the people of Montreal to know that 1 will wage a war against publications of this kind. Let them not be surprised if the editors of these sheets taste prison life." He also criticised publications which exploit old crime cases, saying that there is no justification for digging up crimes of long ago.
In this country, the Government's Bill. which was given its first reading in the Commons on Thursday last week. proposes to make it an offence to print, publish or sell certain "pictorial publications harmful to children and young persons." or to import them.
The maximum penalty on summary conviction would be four months' imprisonment or a fine of £100, or both The Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Bill is aimed at books. magazines or similar publications which consist wholly or mainly of stories in pictures, with or without words. portraying crimes. violence or cruelty. or incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature in such a way that the work as a whole would tend to corrupt a child or young person. The Bill provides for search warrants, seizure of suspected works and forfeiture.
Lasz 0 Toth dead?
A message from Vienna states that Laszlo Toth, editor of the Hungarian newspaper Nomzeti Ujsag, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment when he was on trial with Cardinal Mindszenty, has died in a Budapest prison.