MORALS OF MONTREAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 285, 2 December 1925, Page 7

MORALS OF MONTREAL.

* _ . LIQUOR AND WHITE SLAVES. CLOSED EYE OF POLICE. SOME SHOCKING REVELATIONS i i (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 11 a.m.) MONTREAL. December 1. Montreal is on the vcr ? e of another sensational revelation regarding tho j administration of police officials whose I dismissal was recommended by Judge toderre. following last year's' inquiry, hut whom the city's executive commission refused to dismiss, with the excep- j tion of a few constables. ! The latest scandal concerns the nisrht clubs with which tho city is inf.st..L j Ihe province of Quebec's liquor laws provide that there shall be no sale of | liquor after certain hours, and ban the | pile of sp,rits in any dance hall or club I both of which regulations are openly (violated by scores of so-called clubs, which, investigations show, are rendezvous for criminals, drug addicts nnd I white slavers. | The investigators declare that at four I o clock m the morning they found girls 1 15 and 1(5 years of age of good families, helplessly drunk in these places Ihe enforcement of the liquor laws is the duty of the Quebec Liquor Commission police, who are making every effort ;to stamp out illegal Gelling, but they are handicapped by the fact that the ; night clubs arc licensed by the city police. The scandal lies In the fact that while the law says such clubs shall bo closed if they violate the liquor laws, _imiv places remain open after repeated convictions. A place named "Dreamland" was the scene of a murder hold-up last, July. Since then the place lias been raided 115 times. The only action was to send three waiters to gaol for a month for selling | liquor, but the real proprietors continue Ito operate, apparently immune from ; police interference. Further, while the police inspectors themselves recommended that the place be closed, the chief of police declined to make any move or reveal the names of the owners. The ability of the owners to command vast sums of money is indicated by tho bribes lately offered to newspaper writers to avoid the subject. > I Montreal is now asking how such dens > of vice continue to operate in deliberate I defiance, of the law unless they are projected by police heads. ' ; , Meanwhile a member of the Quebec ' Liquor Commission has made a public > statement that nightly girls from some 1 of the city's best families are taken to i these clubs, made drunk and seduced many to sink to the lowest depths of 1 degradation.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.) • Montreal, the commercial capital of Canada has 550..000 inhabitants. '