There is another reason, quite unconnected with the Susceptibilities
of authors, which makes it undesirable that a member of the King's
Household should be responsible for the character and tendency of plays.
The drama, dealing with all departments of human life, is necessarily
political. Recent events have shown--what indeed needed no
demonstration--that it is impossible to prevent inferences being made,
both at home and abroad, from the action of the Lord Chamberlain. The
most talked-about play of the present year (1909), An Englishman's Home,
has for its main interest an invasion of England by a fictitious power
which is understood, as it is meant to be understood, to represent
Germany. The lesson taught by the play is the danger of invasion and
the need for every English citizen to be a soldier. The Lord Chamberlain
licensed this play, but refused to license a parody of it. Shortly
afterwards he refused to license another play in which the fear of a
German invasion was ridiculed. The German press drew the inevitable
inference that the Lord Chamberlain was an anti-German alarmist, and
that his opinions were a reflection of those prevailing in St. James's
Palace. Immediately after this, the Lord Chamberlain licensed the play.
Whether the inference, as far as the Lord Chamberlain was concerned, was
justified, is of no consequence. What is important is that it was sure
to be made, justly or unjustly, and extended from the Lord Chamberlain
to the Throne.