is an utter blank to him. Tradition is to take one or more women and to bring forth children: so he marries, automatically, with no thought of other possibilities of existence. Therefore, if essential homosexuality exists within the African-and it exists-there is for the most part a formidable inhibition of this instinct beneath the influence of racial temperament and prevailing customs. Of course, this situation has nothing original to it; it has been largely the onus of many Europeans, particularly those of the lower social classes. These homophiles, invested with some petty local authority, conduct an absolutely "normal" life, even marry, up to the time. of some event, or an emotional upheaval a blinding bolt of insight, ant accidental homosexual discoverythrows sharply into light their true personality. Now, this upheaval has a good deal less chance to come about with the African Negro, whose feeling is heavily blunted if compared with that of the European, and who is truly bewitched by his inflexible cus-

toms.

I am not going to pretend to have made, in this brief space, any sort of thorough coverage of the Homosexual Problem in colored Africa. I have given as much as my personal material. would allow, often fragmentary and in snatches, but significant, I feel, to what we are considering. It appears as though the following conclusions may be sanctioned:

Homosexuality exists, but principally in a desultory form, and at the present time it exerts practically no influence, constructive or debilitating, upon African society.

To all appearances, one is able to foresee that evolution and civilization-with all that these factors provide in independence and refinements, in teaching men to think and in gradually draining away the ancestral customs and mores-will oblige the Africans better to judge, and to take account of their personality. Thus, by step over step, ineluctably, homosexuality risks becoming, in Africa as elsewhere, a human problem of the first order.

Berlin's Chief of Police on the Law Against Homosexuals

Extract taken from VRIENDSCHAP, Oct., 1955 tr., R. H. STUART

The Chief of the Berlin Police gave an interview to newspaper men this month. He spoke about the German law against homosexuals. One of the most important things that could happen now, he began, would be to completely abolish the offending section of the law: "What should be left is only a law against a person who offends with someone under age." He further remarked that, "of this latter case there have been no more than 150 in the whole year. For a city the size of Berlin this is not an unusual number." A more serious problem for his town, he points out, "is the 400 to 500 'trade boys'." "But," he adds, "it would be impossible to erase these people."

"Also important to consider," the chief said, "are the many numbers of crimes against the homosexual himself as a result of our inadequate laws which foster blackmail, murder, suicide, and worse. We all know that the homosexual is an easy victim for different kinds of attack. But much of this mischief could be eliminated by removing the outmoded portions thus bringing our laws up to date."

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