EAST END COURTSHIPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20311, 20 January 1928, Page 9

EAST END COURTSHIPS.

ACCOSTING AND MARRIAGE. STREET OFFENCES INQUIRY. (Fbom Otje Own Corkespondent.) LONDON, December 14. A further interesting contribution to the deliberations of the committee set up to inquire into the law as it relates to street offences was mad# by the Metropolitan Magistrate at Thames Police Court (Mr J. A. R. Cairns). , , In the precis of evidence set before the committee, Mr Cairns said that men of reputation do embark on adventures, and women of reputation do absolve themselves from the formality of an introduction. The difficulty for both the policeman and the magistrate was to segregate the vicious from the adventurous. “ There is no rule of law or morals against making friends with strangers, but there is a danger in mistaking reciprocity. In this there may or may not be insulting behaviour,’ ‘ soliciting,’ or accosting.’ Anyone familiar with the streets of London must b© aware that large numbers indulge in these adventures, and they may or not import either vice or disorder. 1 am satisfied that this kind of thing lies behind many of the charges in street offences.’ . . . ... “In East London we are largely indifferent to the formality of introductions. There is much more familiarity amongst the people and little reticence in addressing strangers. Youth speak to youth, and courtship begins in nothing less than ‘accosting’ in the street. Perhaps the majority of marriages are based on such acquaintanceship. A lad soon gets to know the girl he fancies, and the girl makes no disguise of her preference. READING SUSPICIONS INTO THINGS.

“ The police live in neighbourly contact with the people, and are not too ready in reading suspicions into things. There is a police psychology needed as much in the West End as in the East End. A-sus-picious mind can create offences. piere are very few charges of * soliciting and none of male-importuning at Thames Police Court, though its jurisdiction covers a large alien population and dockland. “Wo know little or nothing of the problems that, it is alleged, trouble the West End. This is probably due to: (aj A more stable population; (b) those seeking illicit adventure go to the West End. (c) Illicit relations have less of an economic aspect, (d) The existence of a modified form of concubinage. “ I think, perhans, the police, too,_ keep in mind that their function is to maintain public order and decency. They are not encouraged to found charges on mere suspicions of vicious intention. FEAR OF RIDICULE.

“ Corroboration of police evidence In street offences presente grave difficulties. Few men, even if annoyed, will run the risk of the banter and ridicule of friends, and fewer respectable women will face the association of their name with a West End episode. “If the police evidence is seriously challenged, my invariable practice is to insist on a remand, and_ advise the accused to have legal assistance. I am emphatic that no greater weight should attach to police evidence than to any other evidence. This has a salutary effect, no less on the police than on the public.” Mr Cairns suggested that the West End should be policed by selected officers of experience. “ The police are _ recruited from young men, and youth is impetuous. In the Metropolis the authority of a policeman is very great, and West End service might be regarded in the light of promotion. _ . “ A new emphasis should oe laid on the fact that the police are a civil force._ It is easy to slip into military conceptions and military methods. Military methods beget a military psychology and the temper of the sergeant-major. “We arc in danger of ’militarising’ the force.”