The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

SSUILILIULGUENAENSHOOLAUUGEUDRASELJUCGUOUNAUEASELLUGSAUEEOUOEDEASUDONUECEDEO 608sHdi0QpSUUUEEdtQUUEEGLONEUENGdUApApODUNCQU}NEEANGOULCOUNECONILOESUUEGESOLNUGESOGAUOIDSIGEOQSOSOCUENER)HODEEAUERAUbISUNNADGUNUNSI0UI TOT pe = The Film Renter and _ Moving Picture News EPUUMMETINOOUNOTIDINNNNINONOAUOOODOOINONQUNOQUUNUODINONQOTYINOQQUOOOOQQOADUQUOOIQOUNVOOVOOOUNONOQNOOONQUNON0NON0ON0N0UN00Q0O0ON0V000QN000N0UN0N00NO0ON00ON0000U0000N00N0000QG0000000VN00O000Q0Q00N0000N0UO0I0N00N0ON0INN00INNINIITINOOTIOIUIINITDIV ss: LONDON Phone: Regent, 1468-9. ‘Telegraphic Address: ‘*Wrightads, Westcent, London,” MANCHESTER Phone: Central, 5987. = NS No. 488. | SATURDAY. MARCH 17, 1923. : SIXPENCE, In the Melting Pot. PT sex most momentous day in the history of the entire kinematograph industry is March 26 next, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, is to receive a deputation of kinema proprietors on the subject of the Entertainments Tax. A year has passed since the trade were flagrantly turned down by Sir Robert Horne, and, as a result of hard work on the part of the leaders of the new Tax Committee, the unfortunate blunders that were committed last year have been wiped out, and to-day we are faced with a real prospect of seeing some reduction off the terrible impost that this trade has to suffer. Last year our hopes were high, but we lived to see them dashed to the ground-and this industry treated with contempt by a Chancellor who, from the beginning, had no intention of giving any alleviation to its sufferings. To-day, to a certain extent, we know where we stand, and a gleam of sunlight is piercing the heavy clouds that have ominously hovered over the kinematograph trade for many years. At the moment of writing we do not know who will form the deputation that will wait on the Chancellor, but it is to be hoped that there will be no fambuoyant attempts at oratory, but a plain, business-like body of men who can convince Mr. Baldwin of the justice of our cause. The delegates that will wait on the Chancellor will have a case, the justice of which must be recognised by any Chancellor who has an atom of fair play in his being.. The summer months are close upon us. If we had climatic conditions such as ruled in 1921, then it is not too much to say that the industry will go headlong into disaster. Bankruptcy was only staved off in those days by superhuman efforts, and although last year was, from an attendance point of view, considerably better, yet there is no blinking the fact that the condition of theatres throughout this country leaves a great deal to be desired. The tax has pressed heavily on exhibitors and upon the public. With unemployment so rife as it has been, people have not the money to pay to go to amusements, and, seep exhibitors who have their money locked up in their theatres, have managed, in many cases, merely to scrape a bare existence. It is not just, nor is it right, that a war-time impost should be continued when it is proved to be bearing hardship upon one particular section of the community. There is no bunkum about our case. We are able to prove by facts and figures exactly what has been lost by theatre-owners during the past three years. If this tax is continued, it must mean disaster to many who have their entire savings invested. March 26 is a great opportunity for this trade to ask for justice, and if the case is presented to the Chancellor in the manner that it should be with business-like facts, dignity, and restraint, no one can deny that it must appeal to Mr. Baldwin. Nine days from now we shall know what the new Chancellor proposes to do. As has been said in these columns before, ‘unless the reduction of this tax is included in the Budget, it is hopeless to ask for it afterwards. Over four hundred Members of Parliament are pledged to support the trade in their fight against the continuance of the Entertainments Tax, and the Chancellor must be made aware of the force of opinion inside and outside the House that is directed against this unjust impost. Let nothing be done that will embarrass the delegates in their task, but it is to be hoped that the delegation will put up a case that is unassailable, for they must remember that they are dealing with a man who Is only convinced by facts. The 26th of March is a fateful day for this industry. —