A PROBLEM IN ETHICS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21334, 29 November 1934, Page 7

A PROBLEM IN ETHICS

to i nr. rrij 11.f- i>f ini', rirss. Sir. ! :im concerned about a pruhloni in ethics which I have not solved, a problem fleet itiu m.V personal moial responsibility hi a matter of public in'.eresl. and [ venture to submit n> difficulty tf< your readers. My problem has to do with a gaolbird. an L'"iif.',li:-jh immigrant: resident m the Dominion for a lew vcars. /i .sreat part of that time lie has spent in saol as the reward or result oi persistent frauds. He is not the bold, bad villain of crime. Ralhcr is he the petty thiol and the confidence inc'l-:-.ster. Jlc i:; tall and (if nreseuiable appearance, and lie is vomif!. Hi:, clothes are cheap but llasny. lie appears to detest work and lives most of Ihe time without doing a stroke. He has "borrowed" money from you in; ;:ir!s wiiose confidence lie had captured. and whom ho regaled with lyin:; talk of his rich English relations. Me is really ignorant and uneducated and shallow-paled, but lie is able !o put it across un inspecting people, chiefly yirls. and to live comfortably when out of saol. To give one instance. Some months ago he somehow got to know a bri:;hl voting uirl in a city office and passed himself o(T as a member or relation of one of the wealthiest and most, re-

spooled families in Canlcbury. He was lavish with gifts of flowers and chocolates, obtained by fraud, I would wager. The; courtship ended suddenly when he was sent to Paparua for a few months.

Now he it: at. liberty again. I sec him almost daily in the sli-.v.'t.s. He is not. working, but. I am not at all concerned with tliat. Doubtless the police are watching him. But. now and then I sec him in apparently intimate conversation with young girls, who almost certainly elo not know what his recorel and real character arc. Thin the problem presents itself 1.0 me—

"Ought I, as a decent man who knows I his gaol-bird's record and his apparent determination to continue on hi:; crooked career, let these girls knew the manner of man who is worming himself into their confidence?'' He is too dangerous for girls to know. What should be done to save ihesc girls from the moral contamination association witli such a fellow must entail? That is my problem. Will any reader suggest what I should do? There is always Ihe danger that advice from an unauthorised person like me might be considered gross impertinence. This is no cock and bull storv, and I am prepared to give; to any responsible citizen the name of this flaunting gaol-bird if it bu' helps to protect the young girls from the iietivi'.ics of such unsavoury cliar'iclei Your;,, etc., CI VIS. November 27, 1934.