Streets of London Town

Levin Daily Chronicle, 26 March 1918, Page 1

Streets of London Town

NEW ZEALAND OFFICIAL'S COIvI-

PLAINT CONFIRMED

(From the "National News" Jan. 0.) The honorary Commissioner of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A., Mr W. G. Jamieson, on his return homo after two years in Egypt, England and France, has been dealing in plain, outspoken fashion about some of the things which are not as often spoken of or written about as they might bo.

One of the-statements he makes is that "when the Overseas lads arrived in London they arrived in hell.'' While niany will not entirely agree with this lurid and sweeping description, it is, nevertheless, matter for profound regret that the most dangerous social evils abound in London at the present time; that the Oversea soldier, flush with money, and possessed of a supreme confidence in his capacity to navigate successfully tho shoals and shallows of the underworld of our great Metropolis, is beset with snares and temptations on all sides, and that unquestionably, very deplorable' results ensure in the far too many cases.

Mr Jamieson, in his scathing and rather highly coloured indictment, specially singles out tho Strand. '' Go along the Strand,'' he says, '' night after night, and you will sec sights that would turn you sick.'' But it is not the Strand alone which offends the eye and wounds tho sensibilities of those who would wish a better-ordered social life.

Leicester-square has its own unenviable notoriety, while Piccadilly Circus and its environments, with their socalled "beauty-shops" and "massage" establishments—some even run by limited liability companies—cater for their own particular class.

Though the thing may not be altogether as "damnable" as Mr Jamcison describes it, there can be no doubt i( is very disgraceful. It is not creditable to our metropolitan morality or to our methods of social organisation in wartime. Neither can Olie think that the professional type of woman, who has recourse to this particular social sin for her livelihood, is tho worst offender. The influx of Oversea manhood and soldiers on short leave has brought to the front a new type of femininity— the young flapper—who, in a state of giddy independence, run all sorts of risks, are responsible for much of the mischief of which just complaint can be made, and constantly hover on the brink of the fatal preeepice which leads to. enevitable destruction.

The. Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police area rightly declares that the' law, as it stands, gives him and his subordinates very little power of handling this evil. Both tho English and Colonial .spirit of independence would be up in arms against any proposal to interfere with their liberty of action, as they no doubt would term it. But -most good citizens will think that it would be a gain for the moral and material welfare of the nation if a system could be dc%'ised for the compulsory recruitment for some form of useful war service of those tens of thousands of women who arc a snare and a danger to our home and Imperial manhood, and who menace the health, not alone of thi,s ; but of many sue. reding generation.