The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, April 11, 1952, Image 5
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.”
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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
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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
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