BOYS' SOCIAL CLUBS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 38, 14 February 1930, Page 13

BOYS' SOCIAL CLUBS

Mothers and fathers living hero no longer, find it necessary to check their boys by threats "to fetch a policeman," writes the Norwich correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle," London. On the contrary, the boys are far moro likely' to go to the police themselves for advice and assistance when in trouble.. This happy relationship—a rare one in the country—is, in the opinion of the Chief Constable of Norwich (Mr. J. H. Dam), the direct outcome of the foundation by representative police officers and officials, some years ago, of a social club for boys in their 'teens. The result, which is to be placed, to the credit side of life in this picturesque cathedral city, is an almost complete freedom from the petty,'offences which growing town-bred boys seem notoriously liable to commit, and on the positive side, "little incidents" such as were related to me to-day. One concerned a boy in trouble. This morning he went to the police with his worries, and —well, this boy, "a decent youngster," they say, will have his fresh chance to conform to the ethical standard which club-membership requires. "So," said Chief Constable Dam, a proud pioneer in the work of policeorganised clubs, "we try to get along giving the young men in the city their opportunity to become good citizens by encouraging them to come to us first." The club, established in 1918, has now 2000 members. The boys meet nightly. They box, play games, swim, do gymnastics, organise concerts and perform plays, and they have the largest St. John Ambulance Brigade in the country. They also have a band which plays in the parks and, on certain Sunday nights, inside tlie gaol. Membership is from 14 to 18, and carries no condition other than that members shall endeavour to bo "honest, straightforward, and manly in daily life." Similar clubs have been successfully launched at Ipswich, Hyde (near Manchester), and at Colombo, in Ceylon. .