LONDON CLUB RAID.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

LONDON CLUB RAID.

LEAD TO GRUMBLING.

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dkbebb sold after hours.

OniS M& oomettmee twice or thrice * week nomOj Londoner* have m«4 in SA gßpw •! S polke «dd <m s aW Ak U fhej are Puritanically minded Jhv lime the aathoritie* for taking swfc Mod owe ef the ntaaen and morals of £* wh* ..the Jhari-***, «• not ■: . IpMar LsnimVnfcht dnbe are sinks of and hsunlaefthevidous. Bflfift t* «Im— «t« probably ell that; hat m theavsrsge the Landoa nirijifc Sib Is I'MSort mowssignerd r g slanderous tongue* than sinning by\i» ewn activities. Xbe anna of than wiiit fwß tti pollesam poetically whoUydfrected to the prersntioa of iafnctknii of the licensing law* by the sale of aieoihoCe liquor* daring prohibited hours. Nothing more heinous ba» been alleged against any single one of the many that have been aided recently. * ; j#-not TnT "*^ l difference in the methods pursued by the I«ndon police to procure evidence on the strength of - wtteh a night club can be closed and Ifcoso fW* *° obtain penalties agamet such resorts as Bslan Morgan's. Club Murray in New York. Tbire is thio difference in the system: In London the law is directly •id.cti™ i in N,» York law is toto play in, directly—at least in * majority •of eases—by the intervention of hireling „ observers. r - - Many Londoners have protested against the . police being sent to jfcht dubs to procure and being allowed to spend lie taxpayers' money in doing so. The biggest outlay rtcorded by any London party of detectives was a sum barely exceeding £1Q» and in their case there were three of them and out of their total disbursement more than £3 went in payments to "dancing partner*."—yormgwomen ■ who are a regular feature of a few of the London night clubs. ..The sum of £7 for a quart of champagne in » New York night club, as compared with £3 for a similar bottls of, probably, a much better vintage In London is conclusive evidence that the reward of the ...lawbreaker is much in Gotham •-f - than in the "modern Babylon." ' " Yet thoee rewards are high MwQgh to enable a small fraternity of night clnb promoters to pay big leases and also to fayblgfiiie? when they are haled before a magistrate. "The King" of sll _Lon- . dob r s night club promoters, who. ineidenf||' tally, waa an American, and who has now retired on his large profits, and lives a life of opulent respectability, had a system all his own. It worked in his case, because it wa»an innovation in Us day. ■*

He used to maka friends with certain people who were in a position to "give him the office" when a police raid was in contemplation, with the result that when, an attempt waa actually made to catch Him unawareshis emile was go childlike andbland thatno heathen Chinee could rival it. Hot Bone That Way How. "The King of Night Clubs'" system no longer works in London. There are, of course, report* that certain clubs which have the reputation of never being raided om their inxmunty to the close relations established between their -p-—*"*"■ oJWA}, W* in view of the drastic instructions given by Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, to it nay be doubted whether "bribery and corruption? can be assigned as an adequate reason for their escape. Though tha *aßee ttn learned vm at the trkka by vhkfcthe law i» evaded, they have not yet mastered aIL In same cases the precautione taken by the managements are of that 'eiaule kind which nlnsssil all the beet bnuns of the Paris Surete Generate in Edgar Allan Foe's famous story of the incriminating document whieh wan not discovered, despite the most diligent search, because it was openly displayed in a vase on the mantelpiece. •• , . h Sir William Joynson-Hicks is currently reported, to have vowed'a vow that lie would dose up allthe night clubs liHbondon. It is -true that in the last three months twenty of them have been raided in most cases convictions obtained 'against the. managements; but aa a new dub can be started.jsy the-for-mi% of registration andpeyment of a small fee, forevery one that is dosed at least one o|ber, if not tw«v is opened almost immediately. f ; Trend Toward Segregation. If all London, with ita 7,000,000 inhabitants and ita thousand* and thousands of du6i and hotels, were to be policed «ith tte object of prevetttißg druilnngt the real classes would flnd it_a very happy hnnting-gronnd. There is* » &&& amoig section df the population to argue that the oi oertain , classes of Within a particular area ha the West End is much more from tbepomt of view of the general community, than wouldbe their dispersal aIT over the iiib! rnpolis a - which at one waa beginning to show itself. . Benort, in fact, has it that, notwithstanding the 'drastic orders from the Home CMBce, there is a growing indisposition on the part of some of the executive authoritiea to carry out their ms tractions without some regard for ine known character of a eelect number of t nm night clubs where there has sever'been any such, flagrant eviasionof the law aa could be discerned with the police, it taay "be said, aa a |£srt rule; *ke kindly 4* *he Tole which has been assigned to them of spying under false pretences. , The story is told of two young detectives, got up in evening dress, who were sent to one 1 dub to procure evidence, and who were so Bttlein love with ther job .that 'they hadn't the courage to order whisky and soda, and drapik ginger, ale, and , took away: tbd bottler with them as enemastantial yroofof j*eir story, <v .