TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN THE LONDON POLICE FORCE

Bush Advocate, Volume IX, Issue 668, 27 August 1892, Page 6

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN THE LONDON POLICE FORCE

Mr A. L. Foster, chief superintendent, of' the City Police, has resigned after twoutyseven years' service, and a representative of tbe '"rail Mall Guzetto" culled ut the police headquarters in Old Jewry and had a chat withhim. "Many are familiar with tho spare but striking figure of Mr Foster,"' writes the interviewer, "but only thoeewho have made his acquaintance know what a kindly and courteous officer he is. He has earned tho rare distinction of being thoroughly respected by all classes— by City leathers and Socialist agitators alike — «ind- will carry with him into his retirement the bast wishes of everybody. He has had in some respeots a unique experience, and a sew particulars of his oareer oan scarcely fail to be of interest.

Mr Foster is not a Coukuey. He is a native of Birmingham. At an early age he went to reside at Warwick, where he was educated, and where, at the age of thirteen, he entered the office of a local solicitor. There ho remained five years, and when eighteen he cams to London to the office of tho well-known and eminent legal firm, Messrs Gregory, I'aulkner, Gregory, and Skirrow. Some time afterwards ha ■was elected Deputy-Governor of the Houao of Detention — a post which he filled till the ■.59th of September, 18G1, when he received the more lucrative appointment of superintendent of the Oity police. A FiiX FOru'K. " During the twenty-seven years you have bean in the city," remarked our representative, ' ' you must have seen many changes botli mside the force and outside it?" "YcV'said Mr Foster, J "I have. There are the city police, for instance. They have, during my time, been reorganised and considerably augmented, a hundred men having bMU added under the present Commissioner, Colonel Smith." " But the area of the city bus not been increased, why add .1 hundred men?" — "The area has not been increased, but tho traific has increased enormously within the last quarter of a century, and wants much more looking after than 11 used to do. Then, a number of what were comparatively quist streets aro now main thoroughfares, and tho traffic along them has to bo regulated. The beats have had to be shortened, and all this, of ooursa, requires more men." "What about the morale of the force?" —"Well, the City Police, if I may be allowed to Bay so, have always borne an excellent character. I don't claim that they are superior to all others, but I believe that they will compare very favorably with any other force in the kingdom • Defaulters have been remarkably few, and the moral tone generally has been exceedingly good." A TBKTOTAIXER AND THE " LOVING CUP."

" You are yourself, I believe, a teetotaller ; aro there many abitainers among your men?" — "There are a good many. It is nearly fifty years since 1 myself took the pledge, but, occupying an official position, i have never thought it desirable to proach total abstinence to the constables. I have always been ready to advise them, but 1 have never lectuied them. I have too often seen the mistakes that have been made by over zealous advocates in this respect.'' " Teetotalisra is not usually a characteristic of mayoral banquets and civic functions, and I suppose you have often been present at these?"—" Oh, yes, but when the loving oup j has como to me I have simply bowed, ani it has passed on. M7 opinions in this respect are well known in the city, and they have always been respocted. I owe a great deal, I believe, so far as health and other comforts of life arc ooncarned, to tho fact that I have been a teetotaller." a dbunkarb's paradise. " Now, how about drunkenness and crime in the City during tha last quarter of a century?"—"We have comparatively little drunkenness in the City simply because we have no resident population of the lower classes. And then, when a drunken person is taken to (he Btatiou he is treated very leniently. He is simply taken care of till he ia sober and "then liberated. An intoxicated man or woman arrested outside the City would ba liable to be taken before "a magistrate." " FAIRLY PUZZLED " BY JACE TITH HIPrER. "And crime f — " With the exception of Jack tho Ripper's Mitre square tragedy, and the Cannon street and Arthur street murders, we have had nothing out of the ordinary in that way. But that Mitre square murder fairly puzzled me. I have been interviewed by eminent spiritualists and others on the subject, and have had great hopes at different times of lighting upon some clue, but have completely failed. In fact, that crime is as great a ruyatery to-day as over it was." "You have Lad, of course, to goon duty on all big occasions in the oity 1'" — "Yes, wet or dry, late or early. I laugh at some folks and their eight hours a day, and tell them that my hours of duty have always extended to the twenty-four.' 7 " And what about the crowds with which you have to deal?"— "There is always a great crowd on Lord Mayor's Day, and every year it increases in size. On the day when the Queen went to St. Paul's to return thanks for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, there was an enormous assemblage in tho streets. I think, however, that the biggest crowd I have ever seen was when the Queen opened Blackfriars Bridge and the Holborn Viaduot, but we have really had no troublo with them." "A MAX OF PEAOIi," A^D Tuli PKOCEBKIONISTS. " Nor with the thousands of dockers, or Socialists, or Salvationists, who at different times havo marched through the City 't Indeed, you are credited with having managed these better than anyone else." — "I would not say that, but I have got along first-rate with them all. My principle has been this. I always remembered that I was a peace officer, and my desire has been that peace should bo preserved. Burns and Tillett, and the other loaders in those popular gatherings, I kuow, and when I have made any suggestion to them which I thought would assist in the preservation of order I have always found them very willing to carry it out. I could not possibly havo got on hotter with these men and piocesaions that I have done."

"Of coursß you were always glad to gat rid of the processions f" — "Oh, yes. I remember on one occasion Cardinal Manning, whom I knew very well, and for whom I entertained a very high respect, expressing his thanks to me for the assistance that we had rendered the League of tho Cross during their processions. I made my cordial acknowledgments to the Cardinal, but added, "Yes, your Eminence, 1 was pleased to see the League of tho Cross in the city, but I wa'j raoro pleased to see them out of it.' The Cardinal said ho quite understood, and he laughed heartily." " You had large numbeia of the unemployed, too, congregating in toe city at one period?" — " Thousands of them need to assemble about the Mansion House, but there nevtr was any disorder. '' CROWD3 AXD JIAXCiIXOS AT NKWOATE. " Let me see, there wero public executions in your time. How about the crowds at Kowgate?'' — "Oh, they were very large, especially when Barrett, for causing the explosion at the Clorkenwell House of Detention, was hanged. He was the last criminal who was publioly executed. I was always on duty on these occasions, and it was gruesome work. The gallows, a big, lumbering machine on wheels, used to be run out of" the prison at midnight on Sunday, and the crowd, whish consisted of the vilest characters in London, began to assemble at that hour, and grow almost till the hour of execution, which was at 8 o'olook the following morning. The police had to form threo sides of a square to keep the crowd back, and they had sometimes a pretty diffioult task. I think the Act of Parliament which nrnie executions private was h most excellent measure. Whatever opinion people may hold on tho general question of capital punishment, there can be but one as to tho wisdom of having it carried out within tho preoincta of tUo prison."