THE SEAMY SIDE.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17134, 22 June 1927, Page 4

THE SEAMY SIDE.

. i, TALES TO MAGISTRATE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE BABIES. (By R. E. Corder in London Daily Mail). Wonderful London in wonderful weather is Die pleasure city of the world, a city of safety and splendour, the chosen city for the court of spring, a place of dazzling beauty and sweqt complacency. But always in the throbbing heart of the city there are the time-old problems of misguided men and misunderstood wives, unhappy marriages, domestic quibbles due to overcrowding of large families in limited homes, acts of violence caused by a cosmopolitan collection of races thrown into an inUammable radius. And this human pot pourri is seen daily in Thames Police Court, which turns into prosaic prosecution the queer atmosphere and thrilling tales that come from the Chinatown of Limehouse, the lascar haunts of the East India Dock Road, the criminal dens of Whitechapel, the spectacular indiscretions of the Mile End Road, and the furtive peccadilloes of dockland.

Take yesterday morning at Thames Police Court. Just an ordinary list it was, and yet it provided plots for Sax Rohmer, character studies for Tom Burke, and wealth of ideas for Edgar Wallace.

Here is an ordinary everyday sort of incident that in the hands of a skilful novelist would make the basis of a "best seller." It is a story of the eternal conllict between black and while.

• Aboukir Awad, the Somaliland keeper of a cafe in Cable Street, E.,.and his friend Ahmed Abulia fell foul of William Clark, a ship's fireman, at the Shipping Federation's offices, a place where Thomas Burke got much of his material for his enthralling "Limehouse Nights" series. For years there has been a triangular feud between Norwegians, .lascars, and Chinese in Dockland, but William Clark got embroiled in the fetid, and, according to the evidence, he had his hand slashed with a razor. The police arrived and Ahmed was arrested, but Aboukir escaped by a circular staircase only to be captured in his room at Cable Street, where 20 rounds of revolver ammunition were found. The full story will be heard later, as the accused were remanded.

Murder on the high seas was the charge against Fritz Fredericksen, the Dane, a galley hand in the British Steamship King Bleddyn, who is accused of stabbing to death Benjamin Burgess, the third engineer, off Las Pal mas.

The Dane, who was also accused of wounding George Blagg, a donkeyman, was remanded, lie said he was drunk and remembered nothing. What a story for Cutcliffc Dyne!

Next we had a modern novel problem, a straightforward case of alleged bigamy, in which a soldier, who had served his country in India before the Boer War, rejoined his regiment, the Scottish Rifles, in 1914, went right through the Great War in France and Flanders, only to lose the love of his wife.

The old soldier, who is now a clock labourer, gave his evidence in. short snappy sentences, as if he were being questioned in the orderly-room. He was one of Rudyard Kipling's barrackroom characters, and it was a pathetic story he told.

Coming home on leave in-1915, he said, he found that his wife hart thrown him over for another man, and when he offered to forgive her she spat in his face and said she had found a better man. The allegation was that she had "married" this better man while the old soldier husband, who enlisted at the age, of 18 and had been a trained soldier before the Boer War, was responding to the call of the colours.

Without prejudicing the case, which was sent for I rial, I may say that the court was impressed with the sterling character of the old soldier. But women have queer tastes, which is just as well for most of us.

Turning to the lighter mood of Thames Police Court, I was interested in the plaint of three patriotic infants —the red, while, and blue babies who had brought their mothers to complain about their fathers. The red baby's parent, who was tea weeks in arrears on a maintenance order, had a bad habit of paying a week and missing a week. He had never been to prison, but he looks like remedying the oversight. The while baby's mother was marked on the face by the father, who worked for the borough council, made more than £.'! a week, and came home nearly every night the worse for drink.

Baby's mother said father hit her in the tub, but what she meant was thai father struck her while she was at the wash-tub.

Unless the court missionary can bring his influence to bear, the white baby's father will join the red baby's father in gaol. The blue baby anticipated ils mother's complaint by crowing lustily at the sight of the usher, who modestly disclaimed all knowledge of the affectionate infant whose father is en-

gaged in the ice-cream business run by the grandfather. During this summer weather father has been earning £4 a week and giving only 12s to mother, who took out a summons with the vociferous approval of the blue baby.