LURING OFFICERS TO RUIN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 203, 25 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

LURING OFFICERS TO RUIN.

LONDON SCANDAL. NEWSPAPER'S ATTACK. How many officers must the gambling dens ol London ruin before the authorities are awakened? The law courts have given publicity to many cases of officers whose downfall has been attributed to tho gaming table. How long shall this scandal continus? Where are the police ? The addresses of certain gambling dens are well known \o hundreds of people. Yet they remain immune from raids. The name of a certain ..otel where a big game may be had any daycan be obtained by almost anybodv without difficulty. Another "popular" hotel ; n the heart of the West End is named by thousands as the resort of young officers playing chemin-de-fer. Foreigners are frequent habitues of these places. Working generally in T>a : rs, <it is not difficult to find easy dupes among young and inexperienced officers. For a Rumanian, deported for nocket-picking in the streets, was found to have been a regular frequenter of such games in private flats. The m'litarv authorities are well aware of tl«? facts. Manv officers favour court-martial law as the only effect, ive solution, having failed to obta'n effecCve action on the part of the police. Surely there should be an alternative to martial law? Public opinion must be awakened to the growing evils ; n our midst, and must force the authorities to appl the powers already in the hands of Scotland Yard. These are the two alternat'ves martial law or a police inquiry. Which shall it be? LOST £SOOO IN A NIGHT. Sensational details, alleging police corruption as the root evil, have been given to the "Weekly Dispatch" by a high authority. "Officers on leave." he said, "are subject to extraordinary pitfalls. Lured into the gambling haunts by welldressed touts, ilioy are fleeced by cheating and blackmailed 1 by scoundrelly men and women. I heard quite recent, ly of tw cases. In one an officer lost €7OO, and in the other a Guardsman lost £sooo—each in one night. '■ Numbers of pre-war gambling dens have been closed down; the night-club evjls have largely aoated aince Press publicity was thrown in that direction. But measures have been of a nibbling order. Men and women, convicted persons, change localities and reopen in the gambling line. Certain premises in Regent-street are notorious. Here two partly-dressed women may frequently lie seen at a top window acting as decoys. Gambling crooks and regular players now largely play in private houses" and flats —seldom tw : ce consecutively at the same address. Paraphernalia is carried around with them and a frequent practice is for these men and women to hire a flat for the halfday. Officers' wjves are known to pay the rent of their flat in this manner, even though not partieipafrng in the games themselves. "The addresses of eeitain gambling haunts are known to the polYce—'palmoil' furnshes the requisite immunity. This is well known among circles that regularly frequent these games. One particular case may be cited as an instance. An officer home on loave wanted a game. Strolling through Mayfair with a friend, doubt was expressed as to whether a game could be got chat night at a certain house. The civilian friend asked a constable on the street corner. 'Number fourteen, sir,' came the prompt reply, 'and you will be quite safe to-night. Thank you, sir.' H" touched h's cap, and a coin passed. "At a certain house a board : ng-hous? keeper was warned not many weeks back for showing a brilliant light on the top floor. Upon being knocked up and wairned that if a police constable called she would be liable to a fine :it' 4z5, she replied: 'Twenty-five pounds 1 )P d ! Half-a-crown to the constable.' "A sokrer was found drunk at Euston recently with a half-empty bottie of whisky in his tunic. H e admitted buying the Vquor at a St. Pancras hairdresser's. A trap revealed that wh'sky was sold there, as stated, at 7s. a bottle—and vile stuff, too. Reported to the the reply came -that the soldier shonld be prosecuted for buying the liquor during prohibited hours.' COCAINE SOLD AT HOTEL. " Not far from Coventry-street one hotel was suspected of selling cocaine to soldiers, and a man was observed to fling a number of boxes over the counter. In an attempt to arrest this man the landlady extingu'shed the lights. The cocaine'was sold at 2s 6d per packet. Subsequently 13 packets of cocaine were found in a cupboard behind the counter in this bar; two were found on the man implicated, and a numbc of half-crowns. The police have taken no act : on." In the interests of the army, these masters must be hid no longer. The Weekly Dispatch publishes the foregoing statement in all seriousness, and with a full knowledge of the gravity of the charges preferred against a section of a body of men the metropolis has long and rightly been proud 01. But the statement has been made by an authority whose charges cannot be disregarded.