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2. Public General Acts, 2 and 3 Vict., cap. 47.

3. The King v. de Munck (1918) 1 KB 635, cited in Self, Helen J., Prostitution, Women and Misuse of the Law: The Fallen Daughters of Eve (London: Frank Cass, 2003)Google Scholar, 117.

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8. The Times, August 6, 10, 13, 23 and 30; and September 12, 13 and 15,1928.

9. For a recent examination of the AMSH's campaign to reform the solicitation laws see Laite, Julia A., “The Association for Moral and Social Hygiene: Abolitionism and Prostitution Law in Britain (1915–1959),” Women's History Review 17 (2008): 207–3lCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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11. Ibid., 28–29. For a discussion of these two proposed offences see Self, Prostitution, 7.

12. Logan, Anne, Feminism and Criminal Justice: A Historical Perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, 2008), 97–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Self, Prostitution, 6–8.

13. Laite, “The Association for Moral and Social Hygiene,” 218.

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26. WL, 3/AMS Box 42, MEC May 16, 1919, September 19, 1919.

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28. WL, 3/AMS Box 42, MEC June 20, 1922, September 15, 1922.

29. Reading University Library, Astor papers (hereafter RUL), MS 1416/1/1/751, press release of Consultative committee of Women's Organizations to the provincial press; Daily Graphic, July 9, 1921; Smith, Harold L., “British Feminism in the 1920s,” in British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, ed. Smith, Harold L. (Aldershot: Elgar, 1990)Google Scholar, 51. The CCWO had the support of male MPs and campaigned against parliamentary candidates hostile to women. The group also served as a forum for networking: Thane, “What Difference Did the Vote Make?” 269.

30. Law, Suffrage and Power, 56.

31. WL, 3/AMS Box 42, MEC November 19, 1920; ibid., Box 43, MEC December 15, 1922, November 16, 1923.

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38. WL, 3/AMS Box 42, MEC November 17, 1922, letter from Alison Neilans, AMSH secretary, to all leading daily, Sunday, and provincial newspapers, November 11, 1922. To be fair to the police, Fitzroy had previous form for “annoying women.” Sir Almeric was arrested for a similar offence in 1917; however, “proceedings were (with the then Commissioner's approval) withdrawn in view of the defendant's social position”: TNA, MEPO 10/9.

39. Logan, Feminism and Criminal Justice, 98.

40. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC April 24, 1925, May 15, 1925.

41. HC Debates, 5s, vol. 186, July 8, 1925, cols. 423–5. For the rallying of the cause see: RUL, MS 1416/1/1/517, Neilans to Astor, 3 July 1924; WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC 24 April 1925.

42. HC Debates, 5s, vol. 186, 8 July 1925, col. 424; RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lord Astor to Earl Dunsmore, July 16, 1925.

43. TNA, HO 45/12663, L.N. Blake Ogders, Home Office acting principal secretary, to C.J. Harris, private secretary to the parliamentary secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) Rt. Hon. Bolton Meredith Eyres-Monsell, July 20, 1925.

44. Ibid., June 22, 1926: signature illegible.

45. The Times, July 9, 1925; Lord Desborough speaking for the government, 65 HL Debates, 5s, December 9, 1926, cols. 1401–2.

46. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/558. Conference on the solicitation laws held at Lady Astor's house, 4, St. James's Square, November 30, 1926.

47. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lady Emmott, convenor of the Parliamentary and Legislation Committee of the NCW, to Lady Astor, July 22, 1925.

48. TNA, HO 45/12663, unsigned letter from the Magistrates' Association to the Home Office, June 12, 1925.

49. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Canterbury to Astor, July 31, 1925.

50. See The Times, February 19, 1927.

51. Logan, Feminism and Criminal Justice, 98.

52. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Joynson-Hicks to Mr Robert Hudson, July 21, 1925; WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC April 16, 1926; and RUL, MS HL 1926, cols. 1401–2.

53. Cited in Jones, Enid H., Margery Fry: The Essential Amateur (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 156Google Scholar.

54. Daily Herald, December 11, 1928.

55. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Joynson-Hicks to Astor, March 23, 1926, Astor to Joynson-Hicks, March 27, 1927.

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57. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC October 11, 1927. On August 23 1927, Francis Henry Bateman Champain was convicted at Bow St. Police Court for “persistently importuning male persons.” His sentence of 3 months hard labor was quashed at quarter sessions. Six days later, Graham Bell Murray was convicted for a drunk and disorderly offence at Marlborough St. Police Court; his fine of 40/- and 5 guineas costs was quashed later: Report of the Street Offences Committee, 7.

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60. See December 11, 1928 for both newspapers. Furthermore, the Daily Mirror and the Star (December 11, 1928), Spectator, and the New Statesman (December 15, 1928), and the Observer, Sunday Pictorial and The Sunday Times (December 16, 1928) were strong supporters of the recommendations. The Times and the Daily Sketch (December 11, 1928) just reported the findings. Reynolds's Illustrated News (December 16, 1928) was supportive, although it believed that some of the anomalies in the Report would need tightening in Parliament. The Morning Post (December 11, 1928) commented upon the difficulties in defining such offenses in law, whereas the Daily Telegraph (December 11, 1928) believed that the Report would have the backing of public opinion, although the crux of the matter concerned administration of existing laws as opposed to reform itself. The Daily Express (December 11, 1928) believed that the Report would be shelved, whereas the Sunday News (December 16, 1928) was of the opinion that the forthcoming Royal Commission on Police Powers and Procedure would marginalize Macmillan, as the former had wider terms of reference.

61. TNA, HO 45/24902, A. Locke, Home Office assistant secretary, memorandum, July 5, 1929.

62. Helen R.E. Ware, “The Recruitment, Regulation and Role of Prostitution from the Middle of the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day,” (PhD diss., University of London, 1969), 571.

63. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Miss Matheson, political secretary to Astor, to Miss West, June 22, 1925.

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69. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, March 16, 1923.

70. Ibid., MEC, December 18, 1925; and RUL, MS 1416/1/1/520. “Report of the conference on the Street Offences Committee,” January 15, 1929; and Vigilance Record ns, nos. 1 and 2 (1929).

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74. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC October 9, 1928.

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76. Thane, “What Difference Did the Vote Make?” 281–82.

77. Jones, Margery Fry, 157.

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85. Ibid., MEC November 20, 1925.

86. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Neilans to Matheson, June 29, 1926. He had responded to a letter dated May 21. A month later, Miss Neilans “pointed out that public attention had been drawn […] in the House of Commons to the fact that Lord Meston had, some three years ago, been appointed Chairman of a Government Committee on Education Grants and apparently the Committee had ceased to function and had not yet produced a report”: WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, July 16, 1926.

87. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/556, Neilans to Matheson, December 15, 1925.

88. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 68, q. 6365.

89. Ibid., 59, q. 6297.

90. Ibid., 19–20, q. 5954. See also E.H. Kelly, “Some notes on the Report of the Street Offences Committee,” The Magistrate, supp. 6 (June 1929).

91. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 3–4, qq. 5820–21. There was an assumption that the Committee had already made their mind up on the subject and had treated the AMSH “with marked discourtesy”: WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC, March 13, 1928.

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103. Ibid., Blackwell minute, April 9. 1923.

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117. The Times, April 25, 1934.

118. WL, 3/AMS Box 43, MEC November 14 1926; RUL, MS 1416/1/1/555, Lankester to Astor, July 28, 1925. In this he was in agreement with Sir Chartres Biron. See the latter's comments to the Street Offences Committee: TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 12, 41, q. 6153.

119. See, for example, his comments to the Street Offences Committee: TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 4, December 2, 1927, 4, q. 1546.

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128. Mort, Capital Affairs, 169–70.

129. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 6, 40, q. 2644, Biron statement.

130. Ibid., SOC 1, 38, q. 274.

131. Public General Acts, 5. Geo. V., Cap. 83.

132. TNA, HO 45/12663, Horwood to the Home Office undersecretary, February 4, 1925.

133. TNA, MEPO 2/2290, Biron to Horwood, August 4, 1924.

134. TNA, HO 45/12663, Muskett to the secretary of the Metropolitan Police Office, October 27, 1927.

135. TNA, MEPO 2/2290, Superintendent? [signature illegible], “Summary of Superintendents' reports submitted by verbal directions of Deputy Commissioner, respecting the question of the practice adopted by magistrates and Justices at various Courts in dealing with cases of prostitution,” August 25, 1924.

136. Lopian, “Crime, Police and Punishment,” 120–22.

137. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 6. December 20, 1927, 21–22, qq. 2439–40.

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156. Ibid., Helby evidence, 6, 16–17, Smith evidence, 28.

157. TNA, MEPO 2/2399, “Return showing the number of Crimes committed and Persons apprehended during the month of November, 1931, as recorded on the Morning Report of Crime.”

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165. Ibid., 354.

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171. Thomas, Donald, Freedom's Frontier: Censorship in Modern Britain (London: John Murray, 2007), 105Google Scholar.

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173. Jix Collection, J1/.B-1a.

174. J.M. Hopkins, “Paradoxes Personified: Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Viscount Brentford and the Conflict between Change and Stability in British Society in the 1920s” (MPhil diss., University of Westminster, 1996), 101.

175. Blythe, Ronald, Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1963), 31Google Scholar.

176. Macmillan, Hugh P., A Man of Law's Tale: The Reminiscences of the Rt. Hon. Lord Macmillan (London: Macmillan, 1952), 192Google Scholar.

177. Stevens, Robert, “Hugh Pattison Macmillan,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 35, ed. Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, Brian (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), 898Google Scholar.

178. TNA, HO 45/24902, Macmillan to Anderson, March 1, 1929.

179. Report of the Street Offences Committee, memorandum 2, 30–31.

180. TNA, HO 45/24902, Blackwell minute, March 13, 1929.

181. Vigilance Record (January–February 1929), ns, nos. 1 and 2.

182. Self, Prostitution, 6–7, 136.

183. Justice of the Peace and the Local Government Review, 51, December 22, 1928; TNA, HO 45/24902, Locke minute, January 14, 1929; and ibid., Blackwell minute, January 21, 1929.

184. Dale, Harold E., The Higher Civil Service of Great Britain (London: Oxford University Press, 1941), 95Google Scholar.

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186. Troup, Edward, The Home Office (London: G.P. Putnam Sons, 1925), 105Google Scholar.

187. Cited in ibid., 106. A recent study confirms that the Home Secretary lacked the practical means to control the Metropolitan Police: Robert M. Morris, “The Metropolitan Police and the Government, 1860–1920” (PhD diss., Open University, 2004).

188. TNA, HO 45/24902, Anderson minute, January 23, 1929 and his letter to Viscount Byng of Vimy, commissioner of police of the metropolis, January 25, 1929.

189. Ibid., R.L. Bicknell, Home Office assistant principal, minute, February 8, 1929.

190. Wilson, James Q., Thinking About Crime (New York: Vintage Books, revised ed., 1985), 83–86Google Scholar.

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192. Ascoli, David, The Queen's Peace: The Origins and Development of the Metropolitan Police, 1829–1979 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979), 208–9Google Scholar.

193. RUL, MS 1416/1/1/558, Neilans's comments at a conference on the solicitation laws, November 30, 1926.

194. Intensified police action against prostitutes is covered by Bland, Banishing the Beast, 109. For the public reaction and police response to the D'Angely case see Bartley, Paula, Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England, 1860–1914 (London: Routledge, 2000),164–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. An excellent, although top-heavy, analysis of policing during the late-Victorian and early twentieth centuries may be found in Petrow, Stefan, Policing Morals: The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office, 1870–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

195. TNA, HO 326/7 SOC 2, 50, q. 919, evidence of Cancellor; Waddy, H. T., The Police Court and its Work (London: Butterworth & Co, 1925), 188Google Scholar. For a contemporary belief that the streets did deteriorate following the Fitzroy case, see TNA, HO 45/12663, London Public Morality Council, “Committee of Inquiry: Women's Courts,” 1924.

196. Slater, “Containment,” 343, 350.

197. Lopian, “Crime, Police and Punsihment,” 12–14; and Taylor, Howard, “The Politics of Rising Crime Statistics in England and Wales,” Crime, Histoire & Société 1 (1998): 5–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

198. Jones, Margery Fry, 156–57. Non-indictable offences refer in general to petty crimes tried by magistrates at the London police courts. These figures were extracted from the London County Council's annual abstract, London Statistics. As with indictable offences, the percentages refer to a crime ratio modified by population change.

199. Emsley, “Sergeant Goddard,” 93–9.

200. Houlbrook, Matt, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures of the Sexual Metropolis, 1918–1957 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 32Google Scholar; and Slater, “Containment,” 344.

201. Report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for the Year 1931, Cmd. 4137 (London: HMSO, 1932), 12Google Scholar.

202. Metropolitan Police Historical Collection, Charlton, “Anecdotes: Memoirs of Charles James Hanslow” (unpublished, 1986), 12.

203. Browne, Douglas G., The Rise of Scotland Yard: A History of the Metropolitan Police (London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1956), 341Google Scholar.

204. HC Debates, 5s, vol. 256, September 11, 1931, col. 450.

205. Daily Herald, September 10, 1932.

206. Daily Express, October 31, 1932.

207. Daily Mail, November 8, 1932.

208. Ware, “The Recruitment, Regulation and Role of Prostitution,” 569.

209. Ramsden, John, An Appetite for Power: A History of the Conservative Party since 1830 (London: Harper Collins, 1998)Google Scholar, 268. For more detailed treatment see: Williamson, P., “‘Safety First’: Baldwin and the Conservative Party, and the 1929 Election,” Historical Journal 25 (1982): 385–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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211. Jix Collection, J3/.C-1f, Baldwin to Joynson-Hicks, January 10, 1928.

212. See letter by Miss Neilans in The Times, April 23, 1929. The concerns of the Labor Party are covered in Thorpe, Andrew, A History of the British Labour Party (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), 69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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214. Thorpe, A History of the Labour Party, 64.

215. The literature on the feminist movement during this period is vast. For the difficulties that they faced see Alberti, Johanna, “The Turn of the Tide: Sexuality and Politics, 1928–31,” Women's History Review 3 (1994): 169–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kean, “Searching for the Past,” 74; Martin Pugh, “Domesticity and the Decline of Feminism,” in British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, 144–64; Smith, “British Feminism in the 1920s,” 61; Pugh, Martin, “British Feminism and the Equal Pay Issue,” Women's History Review 5 (1996): 97–110Google Scholar; and Thane, “What Difference Did the Vote Make?” 286.

216. TNA, HO 45/24902, G.R. Hill, counsel at the Parliamentary Counsel Office, to Blackwell, April 23, 1929, Hill to Brass, June 24, 1929.

217. Stefan Slater, “Street Sex for Sale in Soho, 1918–39: Experiences, Representations and Attempts at Control” (PhD diss., University of London, 2007), 213–16.

218. TNA, HO 45/24902, Hill to Brass, July 5, 1929.

219. Ibid., Brass minute, March 26, 1926

220. WL, 3/AMS Box 44, Extraordinary meeting of the Financial Committee, April 24, 1933.

221. Bingham, Gender, Modernity and the Popular Press, 113, 141.

222. TNA, HO 45/24902, the Dowager Lady Nunburnholme, convenor of the Moral Welfare Committee and president of the National Council of Women, to the HO, June 25, 1935.

223. HC Debates, 5s., vol. 338, cols. 2209–12.

224. Ibid., vol. 341, col. 693.

225. WL, 3/AMS Box 46, MEC December 13, 1938.

226. TNA, HO 45/24902, K.B. Paice, private secretary to the parliamentary undersecretary, Geoffrey William Lloyd, minute November 22, 1938.

227. WL, 3 AMS Box 46, MEC February 14, 1939.

228. TNA, HO 45/24902, Paice minute, February 18, 1939.

229. Report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for the Year 1938, Cmd. 6073 (London: HMSO, 1939), 9–10Google Scholar.