VICE AND GAMBLING ACTIVITIES

Mr Lim Cher Kheng asked the Chief Secretary whether he will give a detailed statement on the findings by the Police of the Vice and Gambling activities, and what steps have so far been taken to suppress these activities.

Mr W. A. C. Goode: Action by the Police in respect of vice and gambling covers measures concerned with prostitution, indecent publications and performances, and gambling and lotteries.

As regards prostitution, the Police are not able to take action against prostitutes as such, but they seek to check the evil by prosecution under the Aliens Registration Ordinance of hotel-keepers who fail to register particulars of the occupants of hotel rooms. There are 226 hotels in Singapore, exclusive of boarding houses, and up to the end of July 1956 the Police, in liaison with the Social Welfare Department, made 396 routine checks of hotels. As the result of these checks 46 cases were taken to Court and fines amounting to $9,790 were imposed by the Courts.

The main part of the new Hotels Ordinance was brought into force on 10th August and the penal provisions will be brought into force when sufficient time has been given to processes of registration and licensing of hotel and boarding house establishments and their keepers. Enforcement of these provisions should prevent hotels from being used by known prostitutes.

As regards indecent publications and performances, action is taken whenever suitable evidence is forthcoming against vendors of obscene photographs and against editors and publishers of mosquito newspapers publishing obscene articles. In the first seven months of the year, 21 persons have been arrested, one person summoned, and fines totaling $3,991 have been imposed by the Courts.

Applications for theatrical performances are carefully scrutinised and licences are refused or cancelled in cases where performances are considered improper or immoral.

A campaign steadily increasing in intensity during the first seven months of the year has been carried out against gambling and lotteries, and 503 raids have been made resulting in 794 arrests, and fines amounting to $70,632 have been imposed on persons brought into Court. These raids have been on clubs and on common gaming houses and in connection with "chap-ji-kee" lotteries.