REVIVAL OF NIGHT CLUBS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 163, 15 March 1915, Page 3

REVIVAL OF NIGHT CLUBS.

TRICKS' ON OFFICIALS. WOMEN DECOYS FOB GAMBLING DEES, A message from Loudon. included in n recent cablegram, was to the effect that officers in London had been prohibited from patronising night clubs, because of the gambling carried on therein. In this connection, the following from the Daily Mail, just to hand, is interesting: There has lately been a remarkable recrudescence of night clubs in London. In the district of Soho alone there are now 150 of them established. Some have a genuine reason for their existence and are the legitimate resorts of late workers such as waiters ol: various nationalities' or theatre employees. lint only too many of them are of an extremely doubtful character, and fully justify the warning from ‘‘ A Father ’’ in a letter in The Daily Mail on Saturday. Our correspondent there del ailed a trick often played on a young officer, who in decoyed by a woman into one of these night clubs. She hands him her purse or trinkets to hold and later raises a charge of theft against him. subsequently offering to acept £5 to say no more about the matter. “A LITTLE GAME OF CARDS.’-’ A detective officer of long experience described other ruses. The most common is for a woman to act as a decoy to a gambling den. in Ibis case she is known in the criminal argot as a "crow. ’ ’ Meeting a young officer, she takes him along to one of - the night, clubs, dances with him, and makes a fuss of him, thou suggests a little game of cards at her fiat, adding that as she is on the telephone she can ring up some friends and make up a party. On the way out of the club she gives the word to her confederates and they also conic along. ‘ ‘ After that, ’’ he ad ed, “th e chances are a million to one against the officer. He wins ai first; plenty of drink is provided, and then ho loses heavily, ending up gonrally by giving his cheque for a substantial amount. Ultimately his mother often has to pay up to save a public scandal.

LOADED DICE. ‘ ‘ Combi in’" with dice, one of which, palmed by one of the sharpers, is loaded, is another triclc. “There is no dowbt that many of these clubs and the habitues of them are making a rich harvest out of officers home on short leave, more especially as the young officer often becomes reckless with a desire to impress his treacherous lady ‘friend,’ little knowing she is the agent of his misfortune. Then, again, the excitement of the night clubs appeals specially to the offi cor just back from the stress of life at the.front. “The prohibition of the sale of drink after 10 p.m. is often evaded in the clubs by naming champagne or whisky with some fancy name and selling it ostensibly as a temperance drink at monstrous prices.” PROVOST MARSHALL’S POWERS. All he night clubs are under frequent inspection by the Provost Marshall, who is the head of the military police responsible for the good behaviour of officers and men. Complaints of malpractices can be made to him in confidence at his offices at “B Block, Rochester Row, S.W. ” Under the Defence of the Realm Act he has the power to close any or all of such institutions, and this action is under very careful consideration, but it lias been felt that while all the existing night clubs are known to flic military authorities and are inspected almost nightly, it is better to have this knowm evil rather than suppress it and turn the evil into unknown channels that cannot be in any way supervised.