THE CLUB EVIL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 16

THE CLUB EVIL

♦ POLICE DIFFICULTY POWER TO SEARCH WANTED (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 21st January. The views of Viscount Byng, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, concerning clubs and the closing hours of public-houses were put before the Royal Commission on Licensing; which is inquiring into the laws relating to the supply ana sale of liquor. Mr. Norman Kendal, Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, said that the variation in closing hours caused trouble on the border line between the 11 p.m. and 10 p.m. areas. In regard to clubs which are believed to be breaking the law it was suggested that the police should have power to search the premises at any hour and arrest persons refusing to give their names and addresses. "As far as these clubs are concerned," said Mr, Kendal, "you are faced with this dilemma. Provided you wish the law enforced, unless the Commissioner is given power to authorise entry,, then the practice of sending in informers,, which is hated by the police and condemned by the public, has got to be continued. "Your choico is either to do nothing at all, to not enforce the law, or use informers, either ■ policemen or others, or give tho Commissioner power, when he is reasonably satisfied that things are wrong, to -authorise ah officer to enter. "The police," Mr. Kendal observed, "are for ihe most part powerless to deal with registered clubs in which offences are. suspected'until they have collected, by some means or other, sufficient evidence to obtain a warrant ot entry. ... "This warrant gives no power ot arrest The collection :of evidence is often a long, difficult, and costly business, and involves the adoption ot surreptitious methods, which are disliked by the police and condemned by the'public. A STRIKING ANOMALY. "Tho commonest offence detected and dealt with is supplying intoxicating liquor during' non-permitted hours. Unregistered clubs, where intoxicating liquor is sold, can be entered by warrant,-, wjiieh does give power to arrest people who refuse their names and ad-"Thci-e is a striking auomaly between the positions of clubs and licensed houses. On the one hand, a person applying for a justices' licence to . sell liquor is subjected to a most searching inquiry as to his antecedents and character, and the promises can be entered at, any time by tho police-. On the other .-hand, any person wishing to promote a club can do so by 'Observing the formality of registering. No inquiry whatever is made as to-his, character or as to tho suitability of the premises, and once the club is registered it cannot bo entered by the police except under a search warrant. ft is; hardly surprising that this situation has been taken advantage of by persons who are prepared to break the law if they can do so with impunity. "There has" been since the passing of the Act in 1921 a steady increase in the'number of clubs in .the.Metropolitan Police district—from 1280 in 1921 to 1523 in 1928." INVASION OF PERSONAL EIGHTS. '■Mr Kendal tola the Rev. Henry darter (a member of the Commission) that ho did not believe, that any rule, however strict, would prevent what had been called bogus clubs getting themselves on tho register. It is; possiblo to comply with rules on paper, however strict," ho said. ' Mr. Carter: "As regards police entry you suggest a frank method ot entry by carefully selected officers. How would you meet the objection that a certain proportion of club members would regard that as an invasion of their personal rights?" Mr. Kendal: "By seeing that under tho arrangements to be made there would bo no prospect of a club that did not break the law being entered. Members of a club which did not break the law need be ■ under no sort of fear." ' i ■Mr.'Carter: "That seems to suggest that the right of police entry would only bo exercised where complaint had been lodged by the police, or became known to them?" "Mr. Kendal: "Where the polico got to know by any means that there was really definite, reasonable grounds for I believing that something was wrong." Mr. Carter: "Clearly, therefore, the right of police entry would bo exercised hern and there only very occasionally ■? "—" Yes." Superintendent John Concannon (at. James's Division)'said: "My hands are completely tied in regard to clubs. The law does not empower me to go in and look for myself. Secondly, the Royal Commission on Police Powers objected to police entering these places using a disguise, and all manner of things. The consequence is that they are springing up and flourishing and very little can be done. There were fifty-six clubs registerea in my small division last year. I wouia not say that they were all drinking dens, but 75 per cent, of them were. Drinking is the chief thing. There is very little gambling going on in tho West End now." .