WICKED MONTREAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1925, Page 5

WICKED MONTREAL

SENSATIONAL ALLEGATIONS

POLICE AND NIGHT CLUBS'

(Australian and N.Z.'Cable Association.

OTTAWA,‘ December, i.. Montreal City is on the verge of another sensational revelation regarding .'the administration of police official's; ’whose dismissal was .recdfiimbiided. by Judge Coderre, following oh last year’s enquiry, but whom the City’s Executive Commission refused to dismiss, except a few ordinary policemen. ;• . . T’ n G> latest siaridal concerns t'h'e night clubs, with'which the city, is infested. Tile Province of Quebec’s liquor laws provide for no sale’ aftef certain hours', and ban t'lie sale of spirits in any dance hall or club; both of which regulations are openly iflouted by the so-called clubs,, which investigations show are rendezvous of criminals, drug addicts and whiteslave dealers. . ’ ■ '

Investigators declare- that? at. four o’clock one morning they found girls of . fifteen tb sixteen yeahs, of age; be;, longing,,to good families, helplessly drunk in these, places. The ,enforce-, ment of the liquor laws is the duty of the Quebec Liquor Commission Police, who are jnaking every effort tp stamp; out illegal selling, but they ,are handicapped by the (act that.pight clubs are licensed; by the City The scandal lies in the fact that while the law says such clubs shall be closed if they violle the liqabi s laws, many places-remain open after repeated convictions.

One place nanied “Dreamland,” was the scene of a murder and hbldu’b last July. Since then it has been' raided 115 times', but ttfe only Actidh taken’ by the authorities was to send three waiters to gaol for a month for selling diquor, while the real proprietors continue to operate, apparently immune, from police interference. Further, while the police, inspectors themselves recommended' the place to be closed, the Chief of Police declined to make any move, or to reveal the names of the club’s owners.

The ability of the ownei's to command vast sums of money is indicated by bribes lately offered to newspaper writers to avoid the subject, Montreal is now asking how such dens of vice continue to operate in; deliberate defiance of law, unless they are protected by the police heajs. Meanwhile, a member, of the Quebec Liquor Commission riiade. a public statement that every nighf’ girls from some of the city’s best; families, are taken to these clubs, made drunk; and seduced, of them to' sink to the ipwest depths of degradation'.'