BIG POLICE DRIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26028, 17 December 1945, Page 4

BIG POLICE DRIVE

THE WEST END COMBED MANY DESERTERS CAUGHT (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 15. While 2000 Metropolitan police and hundreds of military police combed the West End last night, thieves entered a building just outside the cordoned area, removed a safe from the building, and drove off in a motor van. The Evening News, commenting on the round-up, says the full effect of the big round-up will not be known for some days. The swoop failed to net any dangerous criminals, but scores of deserters and numbers of small crooks were caught. The scope of the police operation could be gauged from the fact that in Paddington alone 3000 persons were checked. Of them 40 were taken to the police station. A statement from Scotland Yard said that the police last night stopped 15,161 persons, with, the following results:— Thirty-two deserters handed over to military escorts. Two arrests for housebreaking, four for larceny, and nine for unlawful possession. The housebreaking arrests are believed to have cleared up seven cases of this offence. The police at Westminster bridge found a quantity of furs in one of the cars they stopped. The round-up threw new light on a number of unsolved crimes. As Big Ben struck 8 p.m., hundreds of cars; trucks, and jeeps rushed from Scotland Yard and the headquarters of the British, American and Canadian military police. The vehicles speeded to selected points after which the occupants streamed into suspected West End haunts. The whole of the West End was cordoned off. The police entered the bars of public houses around Piccadilly Circus examined all the frequenters’ identity cards and also soldiers’ pay books and questioned many. The police also checked the identities of car drivers at Westminster bridge and other exits from the Metropolis and questioned occupants of taxis and tramcars. Hundreds of people had to form a queue in the street when the police swooped on the Strand Corner House Restaurant. A woman who was carried from a Soho restaurant screamed “ Gestapo! ” until the doors of the police van closed behind her. In the first half-hour in one area alone 50 military personnel were detained.