STEAMER SUNK BY SUBMARINE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22112, 7 June 1937, Page 9

STEAMER SUNK BY SUBMARINE

SURVIVORS ARRIVE AT ALICANTE CREW ORDERED TO ABANDON SHIP (UNITED PEB33 ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received June 6, 10 p.m.) VALENCIA, June 5. Seven members of the crew of the Spanish cargo steamer Rapido arrived at Alicante in an open boat. They assert that a submarine of unknown nationality stopped the Rapido at night and ordered them to abandon ship. They then sank the steamer by gunfire. [The only Rapido listed in Lloyd's is registered under Italian ownership, and is a steamer of 5369 tons. Formerly known as the Canadian Pioneer, the vessel was built at Montreal and was a regular visitor to Now Zealand ports, including Lyttelton, when owned by the Canadian National Steamship line.l PRISON METHODS IN BRITAIN ♦ ■ DEBATE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS POLICY STATED BY HOME SECRETARY (BBITTSB OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received June 5, 8.20 p.m.) RUGBY, June 4. Prison conditions were discussed in the House of Commons to-day. The Home Secretary (Sir Samuel Hoare) said the chief problem today was the young offender and the prevention of recidivism. There were two methods which might be advocated. The first was that of making prison discipline so 1-igld and the conditions so inhuman that one might hope that the prisoners, after one experience, would be deterred from running the risk of going back to prison. In actual practice it was found that that method had not succeeded in reducing recidivism. The other method was an attempt at the evocation of lost self-respect and at character building. Experience along these lines showed that as prison administration became more humane the number of habitual criminals had been lower. For some little time prison administration had taken the direction of appealing to prisoners' better instincts and,-most important of all, of seeking to give them an interest in things that really mattered in the world. They had adopted the principle of, giving privileges which were lost by bad behaviour, rather than holding out the indefinite hope of privileges as a reward of good behaviour. Sir Samuel Hoare said he was able to announce that, so far as the Prison Commissioners and the Home Office could judge, that ex- j periment had succeeded. The Home Secretary also spoke of the need for modernising many prisons which were antiquated in character, having been built generations ago, when ideas on prison administration were very different. The Under-Secretary to the Home Office (Mr Geoffrey W. Lloyd) said he was authorised to state that the Home Office would go very carefully into all criticisms and suggestions. He claimed that there was a very satisfactory decline in prison population. The help of psychologists, which members of the House had advocated, was being increasingly enlisted, particularly to give vocational guidance to first offenders. Mr Lloyd amused the House by quoting the case of a boy offender who was reported after mental tests to show outstanding intellectual ability. He wrote an essay which revealed an ambition to become Prime Minister. The decision of experts was that despite this ambition he ought to make an excellent fating surveyor.