The Licensing of Cinema Theatres.

NOT long ago a writer complained in our correspondence columns of the harmful effects which cinematograph theatres produced on the school-going population. It is rather a remarkable coincidence that the crusade against cinematograph shows should have been started in India almost simultaneously with the influential agitation against it inaugurated in England by the headmasters of Public schools. In Calcutta the complaint is against the "malign influence" of these exhibitions on the adventurous section of the criminal population some of whom have proved to be fully the peers of their Western models in the exhibition. The complaint in other towns is none the less strong though one of a milder type devoid of sensation. There is, however, this difference between the English agitation and its counterpart in India. Here an appeal has been made to Government to control these exhibitions by providing legislative restraints, while in England it takes the form of a circular letter addressed to the parents and guardians of the student population.