•

man

it is who perustently importunes women he can he prosecuted under th Sexual Offences Act Usually it is not the man's persistent presence that is off nsive and injurious but that of the woman. · If the crimina aw takes account of that it is not imputing greater moral guilt to the woman or punishing one party and failing to punish another It is merely taking account of the fats. It is almost impossible for the authorities t identify the man but it is comparatively easy to identify the woman."

EXPLOITATION

BY MEN BIGGER PENALTY

The man who exploited a prostitute by living on her immoral earnings presented a different and in some respects easier problem. The majority of the Committee considered the present maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment adequate

Mr. Butler went n: "My own feeling i that if it is decided to take action on these matters, as it may well be, the ne usins if the maj ority in this question are not firm enough.

'I have no doubt we should accept the reservation of Mrs Cohen, Mrs Lovibond and Lady Stopford in which they recommend that the maximum be increased to five 'years."

He hoped that would be "a consolation and balance for some other things we shall have t'do" But it .would require a good deal of consideration.

NO SOLUTION Premises Difficulty

He would like the advice of the House about dealing with premises. The Committee recommended that magistrates should be empowered to make an order determining the ten ancy or requiring the tenant to assign it to a pers n approved by the landlord. Obviously this was a problem of peculiar difficulty

He did not think they had been able to solve it. They based, the recommendation on the existing provision for a summary order for possession by the convicting court.

The Government had come to the conclusion that this provedure was defective because it overrode the Το rights of innocent sub-tenants devise new procedure would involve awkward and almost impossible dovetailing of the criminal and civil law. He did not see a way at present to provide a reas nably speedy and

effe ver medy

I would be a tragedy if legislation deal with pr stitutes fell on some innocen! ubenant who happened to upy the same building.

He did not think the practical problems raised by the Committee's recommendations presented insuperable betacles to legislation. There was a great deal to be said for legislation on prostitution.

There are great difficulties in our path There is the one final great moral difficulty of whether, when we take action t clear our streets, we are doing anything in the end, to do away with the evils, difficulties and tragedies of prostitution."

MR. GREENWOOD

TOLERANCE FOR

MINORITIES

APPEAL TO MEMBERS

From the Opposition Front Bench Mr GREENWOOD (Soc., Rossendale aid his party did not propose

ale an official view. His speech innway committed the party.

He honed that in the debate Memhors wald" extend tolerance to each her and compassion to minorities

our mids who are denied the happine and fulfilment which is the k of most of us He found it more difficult to make up his mind on the part of the report dealing with prostitution than on that dealing with homosexuality.

They were all embarrassed by the hame if our streets. But they had to preserve a sense of proportion. GOING TOO FAR "Panic" Warning

far in

"It would be a pity if we embarked on panic legislation without a good dea of preliminary consideration. I ot convinced we should go as me respects as the Commitggests. When the report appeared he was in av ur of much heavier fines and imprisonment for persistent even oftenders H was still in favour of. much heavier fines but opposed to Impriment.

This should be reserved for those who and organised prostitution profited from it. He was opposed to. prostitutes for imprisonment for

three reason:

1. More women would plead nut guilty and courts, already overworked. would become unworkable:

2. Fins could not absorb any sut tantia increase of population.

mattachine REVIEW

3 Crime was contagious. He did. not want to make prostitutes thieves, or thieves prostitutes. If to there was be detention should be in special institutions for redemption rather than

punishment.

PROVING ANNOYANCE

A Legal Fiction.

He was disappointed in Mr Butler's apparent acceptance of the Committee's suggestion that the need for proof of annoyance should be dropped. That need was at present a legal fiction, part of the sordid charade played out in our courts between the police and the

women.

"But if that fiction were abandoned there would be danger of innocent women being charged. There might be a grave threat to personal freedom."

It would not be impossible to devise a form of words to ensure that if a woman solicited a man and he accepted her solicitation, he should be made in some way an accessory to the fact

The effect of all the proposals would be mixed. They would not cure the disease They would merely conceal the symptoms.

The result would be bad in so far as it would facilitate the work of the vice rings and might well produce a new crop of touts battening on prostitutes But the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages.

"I believe the effect of these proposals would be that many prostitutes would give up their activities. others would retire from public view. "There would be less temptation to women to join the profession and less temptation to men to patronise them. I believe there would be a good deal less annoyance to pedestrians and residents.'

LIVING UNDER SHADOW OF LAW HARSH EXISTENCE

On homosexuality. Mr. Greenwood said: What we have to decide is whether men who, for some reason we do not understand, are practising homosexuals should live their lives under the shadow of the law and at the mercy of the blackmailer.

"1 believe that life is harsh enough for these people without society adding to their burdens. The fact that the law is largely unenforced, and indeed largely unenforceable, is certainly no reason for retaining it. I am fortified in my

✔

view by the fact that it is shared by. many of the great religious leaders of the country

He would be more prepared to accept the status quo if he felt that the present law made any effective contribution to preventing homosexual practices or deterred those "One is as who indulged in them. likely to cure a homosexual of his perversion by sending him to prison as of curing a drunkard by incar cerating him in a brewery.

"1 believe that ultimately this reform will come. I am saddened cy the fact that it should only come after a still greater toll of human · been misery has extracted by society.

LETTER TO M.P.

"Living in Dread "

Mr. MONTGOMERY HYDE (C., Belfast, N.) said that nearly 200 witnesses gave evidence to the committee, but not a single prostitute. . He had received a letter from a homosexual, who wrote:

"I do not wish to pretend I am good, but I am like many homosexuals cursed with this thing from the beginning. God knows the fight I have put up against it, and I am only one of many who have lost each time.

It seems ridiculous for two men who wish to live together in their own home to be classed as criminals and sex maniacs. I know men and women

who have committed far worse acts than homosexuality who looked upon us as worse than if we were murderers.

It is all right for people to condemn us so much. They have no idea of the fear and dread we live in all the time in case our friends find out or we are caught. I know the Hell I lived in when the police came, and I am still living In Hell now.

'You seem to be cut off from everything, and cannot get employment, just because I was cursed with this homosexual trait. I was no more able to get rid of it than a man can get rid of cancer."

Mr. Hyde commented: "I do not think that, after having read a letter of that kind, there is anyone who could not feel some spirit of sympathy."

annoy-

He felt uneasy about the ance proposal with regard to "It could mean that prostitution. any woman walking up and down Bond Street and looking into shop windows could be picked up at the whim of a police officer and charged with soliciting."

Mr. W. J. EDWARDS (Soc., Stepney) said there were different types of prostitutes. The prostitute in the West End hotels was different from the one on the West End street, and she was different from the one 9