LONDON'S NEW CRIME CENTRE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 7

LONDON'S NEW CRIME CENTRE.

"Limehouse," Whiu'hnpel, "the Mint" and the docks are no longer London's crime centime. The Bill Sikes of to-day wears a dinner coat every night and Nancy's successor dons a smart dancing 'frock—with frequent changes. They frequent Piccadilly circus and the quiet side streets off ill and the neighborhood of its companion in song, Leicester square. So, at all events, says John Cairns, many years a magistrate in the Thames police court, who lias written a hook telling of all the big and little crimes which he has reviewed for many years past. Cocaine, not liquor, he concludes, appears to be the modern stimulant to crime. Instead of pubs and the cellars of Chinese dens, criminals gather in what are known as "sniffing parlors" in. the West End. These quiet houses are in discreet side streets, and only known habitues are admitted,. Under the law as it stand the police are almost powerless for it has been proved again and again that when such places are raided the cocaine is of such little bulk that it can be disposed of down water pipes before the police get in. Furthermore the law would construe swabbing the nostrils of a suspect lor traces of the drug a case of common assault for which the police might be held liable if they made a. mistake. Hence the police are asking Parliament to extend their power in tin's respect. •Judge Cairns does not believe that drug taking is widespread.. "The drug supply does not enter England through the port of London," he told the New York Herald correspondent.' "It comes to the provincial ports, Liverpool, Swansea and Cardiff, and thence the only market for the stuff in Great Britain is the crime centre in the West End." Even there the drug is used almost exclusively in night life circles, which have been productive'of three or four of London's most repulsive post-war murders. They are the foregathering places of many thieves, burglars ami pickpockets. The police are relentlessly pursuing cocaine dealers, and one Chinese restaurant and one night club recently were forced to close. Likewise it is becoming more and more dangerous to deal in drugs in the street.s of the West End, the police having acquired an uncanny knowledge of the tricks of the trade. Most of the traffickers are foreigners. Judge Cairns says there is little opium moving, even among the Chinese about the London docks. The sinister dens described by Thomas Burke in "Limehouse Nights" have almost disappeared, along with their typical Chinese proprietor and the little white girl slaves. .Judge Cairns says this is due largely to the keen sense of smell for opium smoke that is possessed by live or six of the East London constables. He says that cocaine is not reaching the higher circles of society, but' is confined practically to the night resorts. When these go, and if the police are finally forced to break them up, "the boys" (the gangs who have infested English racecourses from time immemorial and are taken almost as a part of the game) will vanish and London, from a criminal standpoint, will become a veritable spotless town.

The woman proprietor of a hotel in one of Berlin's gayest night life districts won a dramatic acquittal in court recently, hi answer to the charge that her hotel was frequented' by loose characters the woman was a.bout to lie convicted when her attorney asked to have one more witness testify. A handsome young woman elegantly gowned took the stand and answered several questions. "Now." said the attorney triumphantly, "F ask lor the acquittal of this woman. The witness, who has just testified is not ui woman at all but n man. If an all-wise court cannot tell the difference between a man and' a woman, how can it expect the defendant to tell good from bad characters on sight?'' The attorney won his point. The handsome- witness was Middendorf. Berlin's great female impersonator.