'VICE' PROSECUTIONS
SIR,—The round-up of homosexuals in the provinces continues. In Oxford, it seems, 'special measures' have had to be taken. What these are is not stated in any report I have seen. but one recalls that police- men peering through grills or down shafts and the use of agents provocateurs have been reported from
various parts of the country among such 'measures' in the past, and that quite a few men arrested in these ways have been found not guilty (though not un- publicised) at their trial. • Public decency must, of course, be safeguarded: but surely unsavoury methods could be avoided, and first offenders dealt with by way of a warning? One wonders whether most people have any idea of the amount of misery in terms of broken homes, broken careers, suicides and so on that is caused by these prosecutions; which result from the trapping of those with homosexual tendencies in moments of weakness, and frequently ruin lives that have been, and could be, of service to the world.
One wonders, also, whether it is generally realised how few legal safeguards there are for men charged with importuning. Trial by jury is not allowed, evi- dence is often minimal, and the word of a policeman is almost invariably taken against that of an accused citizen, even if he has no criminal record of any kind. Some men have been hauled through the courts for no reason other than morbid curiosity, and others for behaviour which they have claimed, with medical support, to arise from weakneis of the bladder, or of the prostate gland.
Most normal heterosexuals, I am convinced, dis- like these trials when they hear of them, and regard sex as a matter on which they would prefer not to cast stones. A constructive approach based on expert knowledge and tolerant good sense would certainly be more socially healthy than the present semi- civilised state of affairs. If the Wolfenden proposals were accepted, it is likely that those who are exclu- sively homosexual would have opportunities of seek- ing expert advice and achieving sane understanding and control of their condition. As it is, they live with various fears and tensions, aggravated often by acute loneliness. The possibility of 'breaking' under the strain is considerable; and the punishment for those who do out of all proportion to their offence.—Yours faithfully,
A. E. DYSON
Homosexual Law Reform Society, 32 Shaftesbury A venue, WI
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