GREAT BRITAIN: Pushed off the Sidewalk

In the damp midday gloom of London's worst fog in seven years, prostitutes were dimly visible as they patrolled their familiar stations in Soho, Piccadilly and Paddington. The chilling smog also seeped through tightly closed windows into the House of Commons, where Home Secretary R. A. ("Rab") Butler was opening the second reading of the Street Offences Bill, aimed at clearing those same girls off the sidewalks of London.

Denigrated Ladies. Based upon the Wolfenden Report published 18 months ago (TIME, Sept. 16, 1957), Butler's 600-word bill covers prostitutes and the pimps who live on their earnings, has nothing to...

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