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FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1952 THE NEWBERRY SUN PAGE FIVE American Soldiers In England Popular With Lassies; Too Popular Maybe! (By Terence Robertson In The Reynolds News, London, England) An American Air Force officer approached the receptionist at a Margate hotel recently and ask* ed: “Do you allow Americans to use this hotel much?” The prim reply was “No.” “That's just, fine,” said the officer,, “I’ll take a room now.” He signed the register and, in doing so, gave his signature to an expression of his own disgust at the behaviour of some of his fellow Servicemen in Britain’s “occupied” territories — Warring ton, King’s Lynn, . Norwich and Margate^ I have been touring these areas to find the truth about the Americans and our girls. I must report that in each of them conditions are reaching the stage where civic authorities and the Americans should not de lay another week in carrying out a vigorous clean-up. For too long the civic authori ties have tolerated boom-town conditions on the excuse that for eign soldiers thousands of miles from their homeland must be entertained. They are right. But they are wrong to allow the “entertain ment” to take the shape of blatant immorality in which ’teen-age girls are encouraged to seek the glamour of excitement in a bottle of gin and the arms of a man who couldn’t care less about the consequences. • My inquiries showed astonis- ing discrepancies between the views and* experiences of ordin ary residents and the official statements made by civic autho rities. A Warrington business man was shocked at “brazen lovemaking” while a Corporation spokesman did not think there was any "ad verse effects on morals.” A Margate trader was alarmed at the reputation the resort was getting, yet the police there say they have the “situation under control.” A Norwich publican complain ed he was losing money because he turned out certain girls, but a city official said “we have no problem.” Report On Four Main Centres I believe the residents with no official responsibilities towards their American guests are better informed than their official spokesmen. My casebook records the follow'- ing reports on these four centres which have become hosts to thou sands of U. S. service men:— WARRINGTON — Several hun dred good-time girls—including a distressingly high percentage of teen-agers — invade this small town every weekend. They come from Manchester, Liverpool and others parts of Lancashire. They join local girls in the streets, the pubs ?ind the dance- halls searching for /as many pick up airmen as they can handle in an evening. These- men from nearby Bur- touwood suffer no inhibitions. A railway arch near the centre of the town is notorious. At 11 o’clock one night I saw three couples there who should have been arrested. Further out of town, in the quiet country lanes, higher ranks of the U. S. Air Force entertained in the back seats of limousines parked in the shadow^ of - the roadside. In the town itself, American military police co-operate with the local police to turn couples out of shop doorways, where their love making can be offen sive to respectable citizens. They enforce a strict policy of “keep ’em moving.” Steep Rise In Illegitimacy Dr. Eric Moore, the medical Officer of Health, told me: “1 have no reason to believe the arrival of Americans has preju diced the morals of Warrington.” He did not mention illegiti macy. This is important. For illegitmacy in Warrington rises and falls with the coming and going of Americans. There were 38 illegitimate births in 1938; 37 in 1939; and in 1942—12 months after the'arrival of the first Americans—the jfigure rose to 84. The following year there were 87 and the next two years saw increases to 138 and 152 respectively. The figure dropped to 73 after the Americans departed at the end of the war. They returned in 1948. In 1949 the figure was 74 and in 1950 it jumped to 97. Quotes from townspeople are: A city spokesman: “Main trou ble is rising rents. Airmen look ing for accommodation are charg ed six guineas a week for a r6om.” Police official: “Morals sank low during wnr. Situation im proving.” Mr. Leonard Cox, business man: “These Americans are grand chaps. It’s not our girls, „ either. Root of the trouble is importa tion of girls from other towns.” Rev. D. M. Rochford, of St. Mary Church: “Our English girls are as much to blame as the Americans.” A publican: “Yanks have brought prosperity to Warring ton. I don’t want to drive them away.” Job Printing... Here are just a few items... Letterheads Envelopes Statements Billheads Circulars Scratch Pads Roll Gum Tape Carbon Paper Posters Roll Tickets Salesbooks Legal Pads Staplers Wedding Invitations Business Cards Visiting Cards Auto Repair Forms Shipping Tags Duplicate Forms Announcements Register Forms Receipt Books If Your Job is Printed — See Us First Phone 1 and a representative will be glad to help you with any of your printing problems. The Newberry Sun Phone 1 Letterpress and Offset Printing Lieut. Billings, for the Ameri can Air Force: “I am afraid 99 percent of the men suffer for the behaviour of the other 1 percent. We have less trouble here with girls than at home.” KING’S LYNN.—Imported “pro fessional girls and local teen agers are officially recognized as a problem here. For this small town is surrounded by U. S. air bases at Frakenh&m and Scul- thorpe. To deal with the nightly prob lem promiscuous immortality, Superintendent Fred Calvert, of the CID, has gone.back 600 years to find a solution. Existing laws hamper his drive against the gold-digger invasion, so he has invoked an Act of 1360 under which he can charge a girl with “attempting to obtain sleeping accommodation for the night with a certain man for the purpose of immoral conduct, for which she was to receive pay ment, whereby it is feared she will perserve in such conduct.” Girls Sleeping In Haystacks Under the. Act a girl can be put on good behaviour for 12 months and barred from living in or visiting certain areas. Supt. Calyert, backed by many publicans and landladies, has al-. ready prosecuted several girls under this Act. He is now ex tending his drive against girls who “sleep rough in haystacks and barns.” Fakenham police are also con cerned with the number of girls who sleep rough. Special police squads tour the boundaries of Sculthorpe air base, with orders to put the girls on the road and keep them moving. A recent atempt by camp- followers to establish a caravan camp near the base has been intercepted, the women evicted and the Caravans handed over to Servicemen and their families. NORWICH. — Cathedral bells once tolled farmers to market in this secluded city nestling deep in the heart of Norfolk’s agri cultural lands. Now this is becoming a juke box city with the raucous swing of Dixieland sending teen-age sweater-girls “out of this wojrld” as they jive in . once-peaceful pubs. A pub without a juke-box here is as popular as a girl without chewing gum—not wanted. Deputy Chief »Constable Edgar Dain told me: “Most of our girl- trouble is confined to certain places of rendezvous. We prefer it that way. We can control them when we know where they are.” Goodnight Kiss —In The Open When I visited these plapes I counted more than 12 girls in one pub, few of whom could have been over 18. Stringent police action here has made it a risky business for boarding-houses to take in Ameri cans and their girls for single nights. For that reason the open fields surrounding the city have become popular places for that goodnight kiss. Believing that many Ameri* cans are equally disgusted at the activities of the camp-followers, a young Norwich girl, Miss Beryl Palmer, has formed a hostess as sociation to provide decent en tertainment for the men who want it. The hostesses travel by coach to the nearby air bases for dances and parties. They don’t drink and they get home at a reasonable hour. The girls, about 15 of them, are carefully selected. Working with Miss Palmer are the local WYS, who recently opened a club where Americans can meet their girl-friends and eat genuine hot-dogs “just like we get at home,” according to one airman. Both these ideas are important. They provide most of the all- too-little evidence I have found of a genuine constructive attempt to deal with the problem of the camp followers. The vice-chairman of the Watch Committee, Mr. R. P. Braund, told me: “We have no problem with the Americans.” But there is a mothei* and father in Norwich who will dis agree violently. Their 17-yeaiv old daughter has already been convicted twice for being drunk and disorderly at night with Americans. MARGATE.—This is a worried resort. It can claim to be a honkey-tonk town more wide open and more immoral than any of the other towns I visifbd. Its courts record a formidable list of prosecutions for brothel-keeping and prostitution. The popular pubs here, with the drawls of the South and the nasal twangs of the North rising above the tear-jerking crooning of pianists, have given Margate the nickname of Kansas-by-the- Sea. Girls I Saw In The Pubs How will this reflect on the coming summer season? My bet is that Ramsgate will get the holiday-makers and Margate will get what it has already—3,000 Americans and a few hundred hard-faced good-time girls with platform shoes, cheap clothes and too bright eyes. Now known as the “Sunset Strip” because it becomes the brightest lit part of Margate after dark, the front reflects the true size of the American and camp- follower invasion. In most pubs I visited there were three men to every girl. The girls are undismayed. They are more concerned with the rate their ranks are being swollen by new arrivals frdm as far afield Glasgow and Cardiff. Last week a large car with a peaked-capped driver pulled up outside a reputable family pub. Four fur-clad girls climbed out and stalked silently into the saloon bar. When the publican served their four gin and tonics, one rasped: “Tell us, where do we find the Yanks?” * Quidtly the publican removed their drinks and snapped: “Now get out of here. I don’t serve your kind.” Without a word they left. Cab Ride To A Hot Spot I met two of these girls about nine o’clock, one night. The tall, read-headed girl told me: “Sure we came by car. We have been staying at Plymouth for a few months. Then we heard that Mar gate was a hot spot. So we hired a cab and came. "The cab cost us 17 pounds. We made double that our first night. The boys here were just dying for new talent,” she add ed with a giggle at her girl friend. The police remember ruefully the girl who “made a monkey out of us.” She visited a depart ment store and asked for a new outfit of clothes. As the bill mounted the floor manager look ed worried., The girl smiled and threw a wad of notes on the counter— 80 pounds worth. .That did it. The manager telephoned the police and the girl was taken to, headquarters for questioning. * r Detectives were convinced it was stolen money. The girl was insistent she had been given the money by an American the night before, so a car was sent to Man sion air base to fetch him. When he arrived, he was asked “Do you know this girl?” He re plied: “Sure I do. I was with her laet night.” “How much did you give her?” “About 80 pounds, L guess,” he Tepli’ed. Wr. In Margate, the teen-age prob lem is serious. Most of the 15 to 17-year-olds are already "pro fessionals.” The British soldier is reluctant to go out with girls so young. He knows he is liable to severe penalties if he becomes involved with under-age girls. Men Who Want To Go Home The American is not hampered by such scruples. He comes under American air force disci pline, not British law. He is lonely and in a strange country. He need not worry too much abeut his off-duty behaviour. A sergeant gave me this ex planation of some of the recent trouble in Margate. “Lots^^Mb boys come to town to cause trouble, get court-martialled and then sent home. The dames make a good excuse for a fight. If his theory is correct, then the War Department in Washing ton should be told quickly that a large number of their airmen are FREE) MOTHPROOF YOUR CLOTHES At no extra charge, all clothing cleaned by us is mothproofed. Guaranteed for six months against moth destruction. Newberry Steam Laundry & D. C. Co. Phone 310 934 Main Si fed up with England and want to go home. It is unwise to judge the Ameri can air force by the rowdy ones who make public nuisances of themselves. Many thousands want legitimate entertainment, as Beryl Palmer of Norwich is proving. But the U. S. authorities must understand that it is difficult for us here to weed the few from the many. We don’t mind what the few do to professional camp followers. We do insist, however, that they keep away from young teen agers. These girls wil go home if they are left to themselves. They belong at home. The parents of these girls are often equally to blame. But it is not my purpose in this article to try to apportion blame. What is equally necessary Is to bring this problem out into the open. J / With just one grease, Sinclair Litholine, you can lubricate chassis, wheel bearings, water pumps, universal joints... of your car, truck or tractor... * winter or summer. Farmers find it does a better job at each lubrication point than the "specialized” greases they formerly used. FARM ADVANTAGES at-a-glaue: 1. A finer grease at every point. 2. Less danger of applying the wrong grease. 3. Quicker greasing operations. 4. Smaller grease stocks — one instead of 3 or 4. 5. Fewer grease guns. 6. Less waste. W# dtlivr dirt! to forms. Phone or wnto vs. Strother C. 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