THE MOUNTIES' WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MOUNTIES' WORK.

. EFFICIENCY, NOT BRAVADO. . (By NELSON EDDY.) I have been under as many delusions about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as is the rest of the population. Like the rest of the world I thought that when a "Mountie" got his man he got him dramatically, lunged forward in his saddle with two guns blazing and his sword half-drawn in readiness, in case the bullets gave out. Furthermore, I thought that, after doing this, he was feted and celebrated, and in general treated as heroes have been from time immemorial. This is all very poetic, but a long way from the truth. The truth is—as I soon learned when I was assigned the role of Sergea.nt Bruce in Marie" —the "Mounties" aren't like that at all. They're much braver. Because "Rose Marie" is such a famous piece of theatrical property, I assume that you all know about Sergeant Bruce —how he meets Rose Marie and discovers that she is bound north to save the very man, her brother, whom Bruce has been assigned to bring back to justice. The brother has killed a man. That Rose Marie and Bruce fall in love is an interesting complication, but not one that concerns us here. Bruce's actions as a "Mountie," however, are most interesting. Director Van Dyke got in touch with Inspector W. C. Grennan, at Ottawa —an old friend—and asked if he could come down to act as technical adviser on the production.

Grennan was taking 100 prisoners across Canada for trial, but was relieved of this job to come here and tell us how "Mounties" do their work. Tall, lean, stern and charming as only the stern can be charming, he joined us at Lake Tahoe, where we were on location. Eight then and there he changed our notions about the Royal Mounteds. Escape Not Attempted. A mounted policeman, he told us, never goes about looking for trouble. Sometimes lie doesn't even carry a gun. He regards himself as a disciple of peace, a friend of the sick and needy, not a soldier of war. His job primarily is to prevent crime by assisting people rather than arresting them afterwards. Crime can't always be prevented, so the is occasionally assigned to "get his man." This, says Grennan, is mere routine. The next man "up" is told whom to get, and he tracks him 1000 miles, if necessary, then makes the arrest simply, without bravado. Such are the prestige and fame of the force, says the inspector, that rarely does the criminal show any resistance. He simply goes along, often over hundreds of miles of country, without handcuffs.

Grennan, who must have arrested over 1000 men in his 28 years of service, says he has yet to point a gun at a man. He tells of once taking a murderer to Montreal and getting separated from him at the station. The inspector was pacing up and down the platform, looking' for his man, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was the murderer. Sorry, inspector,'* he said, "I got separated from you in the crowd!"

That's the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.