Alas! the majority reckoned without Colonel Lockwood. That hardy and
undaunted veteran refused to shirk his share in the scene merely because
the minority was recalcitrant and the majority perhaps subject to stage
fright. When Mr Samuel had informed me that the Committee had no further
questions to ask me with an urbanity which gave the public no clue as to
the temper of the majority; when I had jumped up with the proper air of
relief and gratitude; when the secretary had handed me his little packet
of books with an affability which effectually concealed his dramatic
function as executioner; when the audience was simply disappointed
at being baulked of the entertainment of hearing Mr Robert Harcourt
cross-examine me; in short, when the situation was all but saved by the
tact of the Chairman and secretary, Colonel Lockwood rose, with all his
carnations blazing, and gave away the whole case by handing me, with
impressive simplicity and courtesy, his TWO copies of the precious
statement. And I believe that if he had succeeded in securing ten, he
would have handed them all back to me with the most sincere conviction
that every one of the ten must prove a crushing addition to the
weight of my discomfiture. I still cherish that second copy, a little
blue-bound pamphlet, methodically autographed "Lockwood B" among my most
valued literary trophies.
An innocent lady told me afterwards that she never knew that I could
smile so beautifully, and that she thought it shewed very good taste on
my part. I was not conscious of smiling; but I should have embraced the
Colonel had I dared. As it was, I turned expectantly to his colleagues,
mutely inviting them to follow his example. But there was only one
Colonel Lockwood on that Committee. No eye met mine except minority
eyes, dancing with mischief. There was nothing more to be said. I went
home to my morning's work, and returned in the afternoon to receive the
apologies of the minority for the conduct of the majority, and to see Mr
Granville Barker, overwhelmed by the conscience-stricken politeness of
the now almost abject Committee, and by a powerful smell of carnations,
heading the long list of playwrights who came there to testify against
the censorship, and whose treatment, I am happy to say, was everything
they could have desired.
After all, ridiculous as the scene was, Colonel Lockwood's simplicity
and courage were much more serviceable to his colleagues than their own
inept coup de theatre would have been if he had not spoiled it. It was
plain to every one that he had acted in entire good faith, without a
thought as to these apparently insignificant little books being of any
importance or having caused me or anybody else any trouble, and that
he was wounded in his most sensitive spot by the construction my Times
letter had put on his action. And in Colonel Lockwood's case one saw the
case of his party on the Committee. They had simply been thoughtless in
the matter.
I hope nobody will suppose that this in any way exonerates them. When
people accept public service for one of the most vital duties that can
arise in our society, they have no right to be thoughtless. In spite of
the fun of the scene on the surface, my public sense was, and still is,
very deeply offended by it. It made an end for me of the claim of the
majority to be taken seriously. When the Government comes to deal with
the question, as it presumably will before long, I invite it to be
guided by the Chairman, the minority, and by the witnesses according to
their weight, and to pay no attention whatever to those recommendations
which were obviously inserted solely to conciliate the majority and get
the report through and the Committee done with.
My evidence will be found in the Bluebook, pp. 46-53. And here is the
terrible statement which the Committee went through so much to suppress.