SIR,—Dr. Reid's letter in your last issue is timely. The
disgraceful methods used by the police in certain areas stem, I believe, from the attitude that since homosexuals are automatically criminals they are 'fair game,' and so it does not matter very much how they are caught. This attitude is by no means con- fined to policemen. It is shared by an increasing number of criminals. More often than ever we are visited by homosexuals who have been robbed, beaten up or blackmailed, or who have received threatening letters. In every case I have to advise these men not to report the crime, since in many cases it is the Victim who is prosecuted while no action is taken against the real criminal.
At a public meeting earlier this month a• resolution calling on the Government to implement the Wolfen-
den findings was carried by about a thousand votes to three. Time and again, at smaller meetings, we have met with the same reaction from men and women representing all levels of public opinion. The present law is now generally acknowledged to be flagrantly unjust in principle and bestial in its effects. Yet these effects are allowed to continue unchecked and to grow worse while the Home Secretary and other politicians try to summon up enough moral courage to take positive action. Your readers could be of immense help if they would write to their Members of Parliament and to the Home Secretary now, urging forcibly that this reform is overdue.—Yours faithfully, A. HALLIDIE SMITH Secretary The Homosexual Law Reform Society, Rooms 27/29, 32 Shaftesbury Avenue, W I
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