SENTIMENTAL COP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 177, 29 July 1939, Page 15

SENTIMENTAL COP.

; MODEL POLICEMAN. FAITH IN HUMAN NATURE. JOB TO HELP NOT BOUND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 25. Constable T. E. White, who is known in the police force as the •'Sentimental Cop," this week won a chance for two young men which will very probably enable them to become decent and happy citizens instead of criminals. The charge against them ('•jumping the rattler'' from Mo** Vale to Sydney, fare 10/0) was relatively a minor one, but the Courts cannot overlook such offences, otherwise the railways would soon be losing a large amount of revenue. Constable White learned that the men had the offer of jobs in Newcastle and offered to advance them their expenses to get there. The magistrate accordingly released them on bonds. "I'm just gambling on my own faith Ml human nature," the constable said later. -My investment in these men in 25/. If it fails, what oddsV But how cheap if I can make two citizens out of two potential law-breakers. I've been doing this for :»:» years and not one I have befriended has ever let me down. Some are holding quite good jobs now. There is plenty of good in cverv voting man who falls for the first time. Most of fchem are driven to crime by hardship and want. "These two young men are sound at heart—the sort we would [nek on first to defend Australia. They were cautrht crouching in the 'coffin box.' on the Melbourne express. Dogs are carried in this 'coffin box'—what a plight for two human beings, who were only wanting to get work. My job is to help unfortunates, not to hound them. Put them behind bars with criminals and gangsters and they come out feeling that the world is against them. You can never save them then. But give them a helping hand and you'll find out that they are not tough, ibut just unfortunate. I may be sentimental, 'but this kind of thing is my hobby, and I feel it's the job I took on when I became a policeman.'' Constable White has brought up three orphans, in addition to rearing his own family and helping nobody knows how many unfortunates as he this -week befriended these two men. The "Daily Telegraph" thought the story of sufficient importance to comment upon it editorially to-day, and offered its congratulations to Constable White as the model policeman type of which the Police Force could do with many more.