grave reason proceedings be not instituted in respect of homosexual offences incidentally revealed in the course of investigating allegations of blackmail; that the age of "adulthood" for the purposes of the proposed change is 21; and, finally, that "research be instituted into the aetiology of homosexuality and the effects of various forms of treatment". (Paragraph 355, Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, Cmind. 247, 1957.)

The offence of gross indecency finds no place in the common classification of crimes in text books, namely (1) offences against the State, (2) offences against property, and (3) offences against persons. It is perhaps the office of a logical system of criminal jurisprudence to exclude it, and leave private conduct to private morals and to pastoral and medical advice. All these are hindered by the present law, which also embarrasses frank consideration of moral standards, the examination of public welfare and muchneeded research. Masturbation is not a crime, nor, in England, are fornication, adultery or sexual acts between women. Gross indecency with children of either sex under the age of 14 is prohibited by the Indecency with Children Act, 1960. Were the adult "gross indecency" legislation to be repealed, it would still remain an offence indecently to assault a male person, with a minimum age of consent of 16 (Sexual Offences Act, 1956, S.15). Many believe that a return to this state of affairs would deal satisfactorily with the difficulties raised by the present law.

Female Homosexuality

Homosexuality is probably as common in women as it is in men. Although with girls today heterosexual social relationships start early, the early adolescent phase may still be a time of passionate friendships and of an adoration of an older girl or woman. Close physical contact is common: girls will dance together, share a bed, or walk arm in arm, often without any strong emotional feelings. During this phase girls give tenderness to those outside their family and learn to receive tenderness from others; they experience loyalty and the pain of separation. As with men, many women continue to attach themselves to others of their own sex beyond the phase of adolescence, but owing to female nature and to society's different attitude, homosexuality in women takes forms differing from those in men. Female homosexuality is free from the legal, and to a large extent from the social sanctions which are so important in the problems of male homosexuals. Analysis of the two forms, their differences and similarities, may therefore suggest what might happen if these sanctions were to be modified.

Any personal relationship between two people carries a sexual element, the nature of which will depend upon the balance of the male and female in each of the two personalities. A friendship between two individuals, one predominantly male and the other predominantly female, as with the normal man and woman, is different from one between two men in whom maleness predominates or between two women in whom femaleness predominates In the first case the relationship is enriched by the stimulus of two very different mental patterns, in the second and third the richness lies in

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the freedom of a common background of thought process. A man, however, will sometimes enjoy in a woman a vigour of mind which he regards as masculine and the woman will equally welcome in a man an intuitive sympathy and tenderness which she regards as feminine. Similarly, at moments in a friendship between men, one may show "feminine" tenderness and care for the other and between women one may show "masculine dominance". (The latter is not always easily distinguished from maternal dominance.) These simple facts, though rarely formulated, are widely accepted and none would criticise a marriage, or a friendship between two persons of the same sex, in which they appear.

Society's criticism begins when the female element in a man or the male element in a woman is permanently and overtly dominant, a criticism which is almost as much directed against a married couple where the woman "wears the trousers", as in a relationship between two members of the same sex which has a homosexual element. Social structure has a further influence in this type of situation, however, since there is a strong feeling of condemnation of two persons of the same sex so linked that neither is likely to marry, a condemnation based on a conviction which is probably socially valuable that marriage and the procreation of children is a major responsibility of members of society.

Such criticism is far less violent against homosexual relations between women than those between men, and the reasons for this tolerance merit examination:

1. Maternal tenderness in a woman, expressing itself in kisses and embraces, is socially acceptable and it is probably for this reason that society is neither offended nor disturbed by seeing two women of any age or of very different ages kissing and embracing in public, nor by seeing two little girls or young women going about hand in hand, arm in arm, or with their arms round each others' waists.

2. The giving of maternal tenderness is so profound a need in a woman that much of the satisfaction from such caresses between women will be of this kind. Society values this need in a woman and calls upon it freely, and there is considerable tolerance of its expression.

3. A very large number of women involved in homosexual relationships would frankly admit that they would prefer or are looking forward to a heterosexual one. The adolescent girl whether adoring an older woman or more closely involved with an intimate would usually reject indignantly the idea that this precludes or replaces the male lover or husband and family to which she looks forward. The pair of middle-aged women which society on the whole views with such tolerance often have heterosexual experiences behind them or have been deprived of marriage, as by death or by an unhappy love affair, and thankfully find comfort, consolation and happiness in each other without in any way minimising the value of the experiences they have had or missed. Even pairs of younger women of marriageable agethe types of female homosexuality on which society looks more askance are often at least apparently seeking male society with a view to finding husbands. This acceptance of heterosexuality as good