WOLFENDEN DEBATE
SIR,—No journal in Britain has established a higher reputation than the Spectator for the persistent advocacy of a humane administration of .the law or the reform of inhumane laws. Last week, in his West- minster Commentary on the debate about the Wolfen- den recommendations concerning homosexuality, Taper matchlessly sustained that great tradition. He exposed the barbarism of the Bellengers and the hum- buggery of the Butlers.
Imagine my shock, and I trust that of many other readers, when I read Pharos's applause for the legisla- tion about the prostitutes on which Mr. Butler so boldly proposes to embark now that he has the full moral support of the Spectator as well as the Daily Sketch and the People. 'If,' says Pharos, 'there is dirt, I prefer it swept under the carpet.'
The dirt in question is human, the carpet may be a prison cell. And those who are to be treated in this fashion will be at the mercy of the police in a sense which applies to no other citizens of this country.
What on earth has happened to the Spectator? Why do you suddenly get down into the gutter with the guttersnipes exposed by Taper? Why must you strive to out-Bellenger Bellenger? Must we assume that you are in the pay of Butler? Or has Mr. John Gordon suddenly taken over the editorship of the paper?— [This letter is referred to in A Spectator's Note- book.—Editor, Spectator.]
Previous page
