SCOTLAND YARD METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1928, Page 6

SCOTLAND YARD METHODS.

It is to be hoped that the inquiries promised by the Home Office into the recent allegations made against the administration of Scotland Yard will be thorough and comprehensive, and that there will be no attempt to cover up anything in the interests of officialdom or to prevent the inquiry having the freest and fullest publicity. Many years ago what was known as the Cass case showed the danger of any individual being arrested without any foundation for the charge, and more recently a prominent ex-official was charged on grounds similar to those in the case of Sir Leo Chiozza Money, and was convicted, although there was a good deal of doubt in the public mind as to the Tightness of the decision. It happened that in arresting Sir Leo Chiozza Money and Miss Savage the police had to deal with people of means and influence, who were able to disprove the charge. There is a strong suspicion that had they been poor and obscure they would have been convicted. It is this that has stirred the public of Great Britain. There is a general feeling that the freedom of citizens is involved in this matter. Apparently anybody sitting quietly on a chair in Hyde Park could be similarly charged, and there is a growing suspicion that a number of cases may have been brought, and convictions secured, in which the evidence was not one whit stronger than that produced in the case of Miss Savage. But quite apart from the case itself, there is the further matter of Miss Savage having been taken to Scotland Yard in a motor car and there subjected to a rigid police examination for something like five hours. It is said that the Scotland Yard officials have denied some of Miss Savage's statements confirming this interview. But the fact that she was so taken to the Yard, and detained there for several hours, seems to be admitted, and this raises the whole question of the methods of the police in dealing with witnesses. These methods may be countenanced in other countries, but they are contrary to the British sense of freedom and justice, and nothing but the fullest investigation, and, if the charges are proved, only the severest punishment of the officials .will