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21.4.1955AFFIDAVIT OF J.W. METCALFE
Affidavit of J.W. Metcalfe - 21.4.1955
I, JOHN WALLACE METCALFE, 58 Hardy Street, Dover Heights, in the State of New South Wales, Librarian, being duly sworn, make oath and say as follows:-
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1. I am the Principal Librarian of the Public Library of New South Wales, Executive Member of the Library Board of New South Wales, Vice-President of the Library Association of Australia and Chairman of its Board of Examination. I am a Bachelor of Arts in the University of Sydney and a Fellow, of the Llbrary Association of Great Britain. I have been abroad for the study of library services and the use of books under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the British Council and I have been a delegate of the Commonwealth Governmnent to the General Conference of UNESCO at which I was in 1947 Chairman of the Libraries and Documentation Committee. I was Deputy Principal Librairian of the Public Library of New South Wales from 1932 to 1942 and since that date Principal Librarian, abd during that time I have had to exercise control over the selection and irtoduction of literature to all classes including children of all ages in schools of the Education Department of New South Wales. 2. I have read copies of the books described on their covers as follows: No. 21 Real Story No. 22 & 24 Romance Story No. 23 & 30 Love Experiences No. 30 Real Love
No. 46 Darling Romance No. 17a Popular Romance No. 18a New Romances
3. I have been informed by the solicitors for the appeallants and verily believe that these publications are distributed generally to all classes and age groups of persons in the community in all States of Australia. I have seen publications similar to these in subject matter, theme, characteristation illustration and presentation in the possession of three or four men aged twenty and upwards who are employed in the library of the N.S.W Film Council as film checkers in Sydney. These young men are of average intelligence and education and I verily believe that they and others of the same age who I have frequently observed in public vehicles habitually read such publications. 4. Having read these books I have considered them with the definition "objectionable" contained in the "Objectionable Literature Act of 1954" and in my opinion none of these books is "objectionable" in respect of any part of that definition, and in my opinion these books would not tend either as wholes, or in parts, to deprave or corrupt any persons or classes of persons or age groups by which they might be read.
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5. The narratives are mainly in picture form but the subjects are those commonly dealt with in illustrated prose fiction freely circulated amonst adolescents and adults, and one of them is a statement of a current problem of business management. In these respects instance:- (a) The story entitled “Discontent" in No. 21 Real Story. The theme is that of a farmer's newly wedded wife who deserts him and even steals money from him, to spend it in idle and luxurious living in the city, but there is no undue emphasis in the pictures or narrative on evil living and she is shown to be disillusioned and returning to her husband on the farm. (b) "Oh Lonely Heart" in Love Experiences No. 23, is a common story of misunderstanding, between a girl ballet dancer who thinks her manager has no other interest but to exploit her, whilst he thinks she has no other interest in life but dancing; there is no undue emphasis on sex in its physical or psychological aspects in the pictures or the narrative and the theme is common in novels, moving pictures and stories for children. (c) "Can a Plain Girl Find Love” in No. 22 Romance Story, is a homely and salutary story to the effect that a plain girl can find happiness and marriage if she is prepared to accept a plain man. It is told against a background of good parent-child relations and very pointedly exalts happy family life. (d) "Right Thing to Do" in Love Experiences No. 23, is a statement in picture form, with very little plot, of a question which has been discussed in an economic and business journal of such standing as Fortune; the theme is that the attempt which may be made by hip business operators to regiment the private lives of employees and their wives, to the extent of determining what sort of clubs they shall belong to. (e) "One Man Too Many" in No. 26 "Real Romances tells, by the flash-back of 1955 technique of a mother talking with her daughter, a simple wholesome story on the "Which Do I Love?" theme. It emphasises happy family life and points the moral of mother-daughter confidence as the way to the solution of the adolescent girl's problem. 6. The narrative accompanying the pictures is almost completely free of slang or even colloquialisms, and of anything that could be considered objectionable within the meaning of this word in the Act, or otherwise; the pictures are free of any undue exhibition of the unclothed or half-clothed body, either male or female, which might be considered objectionable in the meaning of the Act, and there is no reference, explicit or implicit, to abnormal emotions or instincts, nor to immorality. 7. There is very little portrayal of physical force and of anything that could be called violence, and much less than there is in some novels that have been regularly prescribed for reading and study by school children, such as Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and Shakespeare's "Macbeth". 8. The particular field of these books has been the principal field of imaginative literature in all places and times. It is that of the emotional relation between the opposite sexes, especially in the adolescent period and that of courtship, and
144 The 1955 Romance Comics Trial
in dealing with it these books which I have read endeavour to sustain respect for established principles of moral conduct, by carefully avoiding any reference to sexual relations and by avoiding situations that would imply that the characters had so indulged. It is noticeable that even when the characters are depicted as husband and wife the narrative and the illustrations avoid any suggestion of the sexual side of marriage. There is a constant emphasis on the virtue of happy marriage, homely living and of loyalty between husband and wife, which I consider a welcome counter to the emphasis in and picture on the opposites of hapy marriage, homely life and the domstic virtues, which are common in newspapers read by adolescents, in their day to day reporting of general news, of criminal courts and of the divorce courts. 9. From my knowledge of literature I am of the opinion that the incidents depicted in the course of telling these stories of courtship and marriage, and the matter in which they are depicted, are common in the field of romance literature, whether the vehicle be straight prose, poetry, or a combination of either with illustrations, In such literature, social contact of the kind here portrayed including kissing and embracing is part and parcel of courtship. It is the standard technique of love stories to include graphic descriptions of such amatory embraces. I have observed the same technique in love stories on the films, in which actor and actress are frequently shown embracing and kissing in close-ups, and such scenes are commonly reproduced in advertising matter relating to the film, as well as in magazines. For centuries readers of literature in this field have been conditioned to accepting such descriptions and illustrations as expressing the love emotion without suggestion of sex. As a librarian I would not classify such literature, including the subject pictorial romances, as sex literature. 10. The subject literature is not included in the libraries for which I have administrative responsibilities, which are the Public Library of New South Wales and municipal and shire libraries under the New South Wales Library Act 1939, but that is because it is of the kind called popular, and not considered to be of sufficient literary, informative or educational value for inclusion in libraries supported from public funds for the purposes of education, culture and research, but I jould have no objection to its inclusion in these libraries on any ground included in the definition of "Objectionable " in the said Act, as I consider that it could have no harmful influence of any of the kinds therein enumerated.
ALL the facts and circumstances herein deposed to are within my own knowledge save where deposed to from information and belief and my means of knowledge and sources of information appear on the face of this my Affidavit
SIGNED AND SWORN by the abovenamed Deponent at Sydney in the State of New South Wales this twentyfirst day of April 1955.
