Hammer, Sickle & Saw

Two British newspapers have stirred themselves into a small uproar over pictorial representations of Christ. When the Rev. George B. Chambers, vicar of Carbrooke Church in Norfolk, undertook a journey to Bulgaria to witness the Protestant pastors' trial (TIME, March 7), the tabloid Daily Mirror indignantly published a picture of the crucifix which Vicar Chambers commissioned in 1935--Young Christ Triumphant (see cut). Vicar Chambers was as undisturbed about the crucifix as he had been about the Bulgarian trials. "The hammer & sickle are Christian symbols," he explained.

The London Daily Mail gave a penlashing to the Birmingham Photographic Society for exhibiting the photograph Following the Master (see cut), "despite protests from all over Britain." The Mail charged that "1) it offends the religious susceptibilities of Christian people . . .; 2) the way the saw is being operated conflicts with all the modern rules of safe carpentry; 3) there were no circular saws in New Testament days."

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