facts" deplored the sadistic beatings administered by officials on boys and also men. These thrashings done with canes have often inflicted severe wounds that required medical attention.

The Transvaaler published an account of severe beatings given three Dutch boys in punishment for their childish interest in each other's privates.

Mystery surrounds the case of a Portuguese journalist imprisoned in Mozambique for publishing a pamphlet calling for a boycott of the inaugural visit of an official violently anti-Portuguese. Secret information smuggled into Johannesburg revealed that the journalist had confessed to the crime of importuning a male government official. Sources in close contact with the correspondent say that the police tortured him to obtain a fake confession. The pressman was secretly banished to Portugal.

TRANSVAAL TRANSVESTISM

Five years ago a police officer's son became a girl and took the name of Bambi. Letters from other youths anxious to change their sex flooded the newspapers. A youth from Pretoria wrote, "Since early childhood I have had feminine tendencies. When I was a child many people mistook me for a girl. My greatest moment of achievement was when I took first prize for the best girl in my age group in a fancy dress competition-until they discovered their mistake.

"I have often dressed as a woman, in a wig, and have gone to film shows and for walks in the street, and have often provoked wolfwhistles from the boys. The only thing that stops me from undergoing the necessary operation is lack of money, although I hope to have enough in about five years.

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"I am sure that this letter will be an encouragement to all those in my predicament to know that they are not alone in their troubles."

THE MICE WILL PLAY

Near the center of Johannesburg is a gambling district known as the Rats and Mice area: four blocks of dens devoted to chemin-de-fer, faro, dice, rummy and poker-the stakes often startling. All operate behind the facades of clubs and cafes, also in luxurious flats. Many are patronized by wealthy and commercial men. Many of these men have been ruined or put heavily in debt, insolvencies have been frequent, homes broken up, and suicides have occurred.

Behind the scene a sinister figure named Sydney Blackmoor directs every operation. Legend has him convicted by public opinion on the charge of deserting his wife and family for a handsome young man: his punishment-loss of business, social ostracism then poverty. One night he gambled his last lb. in a crap game and won. Within a year a syndicate under his strong-arm direction controlled the gambling in every large South African city-the one in Johannesburg being the largest and most successful. He personally trains his lieutenants. They must be young, handsome and personable. The games they arrange are known as caravans because they are never held on the same premises twice in succession.

Tenants of the premises used for the games receive as much as one hundred pounds a night. If a raid occurs Blackmoor pays the fines. Raids, however, are usually unsuccessful. Blackmoor's lieutenants have ways with police officials. Immensely wealthy, Blackmoor lives in an unpretentious home with his latest lieutenant.

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