OUT OF GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 519, 23 November 1928, Page 1

OUT OF GAOL

Peer Greets Mother-in-Law at Holloway Prison Gate

“NIGHT CLUB QUEEN”

r United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association)

Received 10.32 a.m. LONDON. Thursday. THE notorious “night club queen,” Mrs. Kate Meyrick, attired in expensive furs, walked out of Holloway Oaol into the arms of her daughter, the Countess of Kinnoull, who wore even more expensive furs. The Earl was at the wheel of a luxurious limousine. They drove to Mrs. Merrick's Regent's Park home, where there was a general reuuion of the family, including another daughter, Lady de Clifford.

Mrs. Meyrick said there would be great rejoicings in her night clubs to-night. To-morrow she would think over the future. She might take over a chicken farm in Kent, or might open a hat shop in the West End. Both were less exciting than night club proprietorship, but were safer, especially since Lord Byng’s decision as Police Commissioner to clean up the night clubs. That Mrs. Meyrick had used her son-in-law, the Earl of Kinnoull, to circumvent the law, was the suggestion made at her trial. Six months’ imprisonment was inflicted upon Mrs. Meyrick for selling liquor without a

He enumerated many convictions since 1920, including lines of £250 and £3OO, twice, and also a sentence of six months in prison. Inspector Muskett submitted that fines were useless when imprisonment was apparently ineffective. The existing law was absolutely futile, he said. POLICE RAID CLUB The police raided the club on May 24, and a new club was opened on June 1 in the same building, ostensibly by defendant’s son-in-law. This could not be prevented under the present law. When the place was raided it was crowded with people, who were drinking champagne freely until 5.30 a.m. Officers during the morning, at Mrs. Meyrick’s suggestion, visited the night club of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Irene Meyrick. It was later raided and struck off the register. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s report for 1927 said that breaches of the liquor law relating to clubs continue to be most troublesome. Forty-three clubs were struck off the register, but they were speedily replaced. A feature of the night club business was the increasing number of alien proprietors and managers. All-night cafes were also increasing. Many were rendezvous for undesirable characters, men and women. The Earl of Kinnoull, who is 26 years of age, married Miss May Meyrick on June 7. Her sister, Miss Dorothy Evelyn Meyrick, was married in 1926 to the 26th Baron de Clifford, who is now 21 years of age.

licence at a night club in Garrick Street. Inspector Muskett, who prosecuted, said defendant was the most inveterate of ail breakers of the liquor laws.