WAR ON NIGHT CLUBS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

WAR ON NIGHT CLUBS.

CAMPAIGN IN LONDON. MANY LIKELY TO BE CLOSED. drastic new move. \ . Revelations of a new massed attack on the night club life of the West End., of London by Lord Trenchard, the new Scotland Yard Chief Commissioner of Police, were made to the Sunday Chronicle recently. The innumerable raids on night clubs in December were merely the prelude to a determined effort to abolish entirely the " night lifc "of the West End. Despite the fact that nearly 600 c)ubs were raided and struck off the register during last year a large number of those clubs are constantly springing up, mush-room-like, in the places of their predecessors —which, almost without exception, go the same way. When these clubs applied for the renewal of their licences on January 6 every one that had been in existence for less than 12 months was refused. Only the reputable clubs with unimpeachable books were spared. Meanwhile, the constant- tension which reigns in the West End following the drastic measures adopted by Scotland Yard is proving disastrous to the trade.

Many club proprietors are closing of their own accord owing to the fact that running a night club is no longer a paying business. The constant interference of the police has exhausted the patience of the habitues of these clubs, who are tired of drinking in an atmosphere of subterfuge and anxiety. " Even clubs which are not struck off the register are finding trade under the present restrictions impossible," a wellknown club proprietor said.. "Every evening we are pestered with curious strangers who try to make us break the regulations. " On many occasions strangers—looking extraordinarily like plain-clothes policemen—have accosted members and tried to get into the club on some pretext or other. In the case of other clubs they have been known to succeed, and once inside they do their best to pay for drinks. If they are allowed to, of course, a raid takes place at once. It is a farce, and we are all heartily sick of it.'-