LONDON S BLACK COLONY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11652, 17 October 1923, Page 11

LONDON S BLACK COLONY

NEGRO HAUNTS OF CRIME POLICE TO TAKE ACTION. . Scotland Yard is taking steps ta break up what has become known ail the Black Colony in Central London. This is a colony of some hundreds of coloured men who have established themselves since the war in the nebwork of streets west of Tottenham Court road. For months detectives hare been keeping close watch on the negroes and on several cafes and night clubs that! they frequent. Scotland Yard’s inve®. ligations have proved beyond doubt that many of the coloured men are highly dangerous characters, and that their haunts are nothing less than hotbeds of evil. As a result of several recent arrests there have been some sensational disclosures of the extent of criminal activity in this negro underworld. Many of the blacks are engaged in the drug traffic, and nearly all are armed. Razors are their favourite weapons, and all-night orgies are their recreation. Edgar Manning, the West Indian “Dope King,” who was lately sentenced to three years’ pena] servitude at the Old Bailey, was a member of the colony, and there are several still at large whose records are almost as black as liis.

Detectives hare been engaged for weeks endeavouring to obtain evidence to bring these pests to justice, and so widespread is the evil that the authorities have now decided on draetic measures to stamp ont the colony. Scotland Yard is now seeking th« necessary powers to close down on* cafe, which is the haunt of the most dangerous of the blacks, and action will also be taken in other ways. One difficulty is that as most of tho negroes are British subjects they cannot be dealt with by deportation orders, but- the police aie determined to take every step possible effectively tq break up the colony.