TO THE WORK IN WA TIME

Evening Star, Issue 16626, 8 January 1918, Page 8

TO THE WORK IN WA TIME

—■ —. ■ ■■ e. ter view wmi Scotland yard CHIEF. ■. Vhc-.-iimformly good influence of the war .011 crime Ims been extraordinary. Mr Basil Thomson. the Chief of Scotland Yard’s Criminal -Investigation Department, t is my authority for saying this. Recently . we had a long talk about the matter (says Edward Marshall in the London ‘ Sunday Observer.’). “At the time of the outbreak of war,” F"9 said, “ London was the gathering-place for .wanderers from adl the highways and the byways of the earth. They at once became of peculiar interest to us at Scotland Yard, because it was obvious that among them were certain to be found most of the enemy spies with whom we would have to contend. As soon as possible we established an aliens’ registration system, and now we are in close and informed contact with practically every foreign-born person, good or bad, in the territory of 'Great Britain.” I knew well how thoroughly this system works m London. Its burden falls, like rain, on the just and the unjust, as is but necessary. / I myself j as an American, go’ armed with an “identity book,” report myself to the police if I change from oiie hotel to another or leave the metropolis for more than a day’s stay. I do not know how many photographs of me are in the possession of the various police of Britain, but dozens are; probably a dozen dozen have been scattered (by request) about Europe, allied and neutral. I have been interrogated kindly, humbly, fiercely, indifferently, suspiciously, jocularly, wearfly by hundreds of officials of one kind or another of police, although my credentials are very unusually complete and my personal acquaintance very wide. I have signed my name to dozens of elaborate records. I know a journalist who came here from America, and as he stood in a dense crowd which was gazing curiously at a falling, burning Zeppelin, lost, probably by theft from & pocket, his “ identity book,” as issued by the London police. He not only was a perfectly good but an internationally famous chap, innocent of any intent worse than that which in general is attributed to the journalist. After some trouble he obtained another book. To his intense chagrin this book also was stolen. He could not get another. He wen? back to the United States because ho could not stay longer on this side—could not. Police tyranny? Not at all. Even this man himself did not criticise the system or blame the men who carried it out. These are war times. The fighting nations on this side cannot be too careful. Spies are or were everywhere, and some are clever." Necessity demands every effort to see to it that they do not do harm. THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE. I asked what effect universal service had had upon the criminal population of the country. “The man of criminal instincts,” said Mr Thomson, “ perhaps shows to better advantage in war than, at any other time. But the man of criminal record is not always of criminal instincts. Many turn to crime through a perversion of the spirit of ■ adventure. So it cannot be truthfully said that young men of the so-called criminal class are more likely than others to shirk war-time or even peace-time military service. “ In the early part of the war, when the Derby scheme was in operation and enlistment was a ■ purely voluntary thing, perhaps 2,000 definite criminals joined His Majesty’s Forces. These were men who had actually. been listed by the Criminal Records Office. Others of the same class undoubtedly would have joined had it not been for age and physical restrictions. It is quite fair to assume that the 2,OCX) represented a very large majority of the men of criminal record who were physically eligible to go to the front. These men were criminals of almost every type, save purely political offenders. The total now in the various armies is about 3,500. Any man wha will commit a series of crimes against

[ property must be adventurous. The one thing intolerable to the English criminal is monotony. We believe that most of these 1 men are induced to crime by the romance of the street or by bad parental control in ■ youth. Most men who become-involved u* lives might easily have been saved 1 by proper environment and training. a crbiinal’s y;d ! ** Of - Criminal Records ‘ Office men 187 . are reported to have been killed in action, 257 are reported to have deserted, 25 i have been discharged for various reasons. , 1 have no record of the total number I wounded. This large group has not been | without its heroes. One C.R.O. man has been given the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry. The distinction was won, as might have been expected, through just the sort of dare-devil ■ bravery which, under the influence of an ill-trained psychology, is.likely to develop into crime. This man’s comrades had been cut up very badly by German . machine-gun fire, and the situation was getting worse. He offered to ‘ go over the lop ’ alone _ with two bombs, crawl with | them to within throwing distance of the German trench, and try to silence the fire from a well-chosen spot. ‘ When you hear my bombs go, start firing for ail you’re | worth,’ he told, his comrades. But'you’ll ! get it from us, too, then,’ he was warned. ‘Never mind,’ he answered. ‘Fire for all you’re worth.’ ‘ “ Tins programme was carried out exactly, and, to the amazement of his comrades, he not only did his really glorious t bit, but returned safely to his own trench for two more bombs. Securing them he disappeared again, only to return, half an hour later, and roll into his own trench unwounded and satisfied with the night’s work, which, indeed, had been of great value. His C.R.O. record did not prevent ■ him from showing not only the highest personal bravery, but .very marked intelligence. Later he was killed. PRISON AND REFORMATORY. “ The United Kingdom has a standing ■ prison population of 10,000 to 20,000. Not - only did those who chanced to be at large very readily and promptly volunteer, but a large majority of those discharged from prison during the early day’s of the war at once offered themselves for military ser- - • vice. “ Among the inmates of our reforma--1 lories for boys between the ages of IS and 21, 800 immediately volunteered. This - enabled us to close one institution. We permitted the enlistment of such of these ■ boys as had served a certain proportion of ' their sentences. They quickly became 1 good soldiers, for they had had military drill as a detail of their reform-school life. 1 PATRIOTISM IN PRISON. , “ Our experience with most criminals, carefully excepting blackmailers and their kind and those guilty of crimes against decency, is that they are rather above than below the average of physical courage. Probably even the few deserters did not leave the Colors so much through ; cowardice as through their hatred of the routine of Army life. “ It is an extraordinary thing that British criminals, as a rule, vastly pride themselves upon their patriotism. I saw many letters addressed to King Edward upon his accession to the throne. One pleased us all. It told His Majesty that the writer hoped King Edward realised that he had no subjects more loyal than the convicts in the British prisons. In the British prisons wav news is given out as it comes in, largely by word of mouth, for newspapers are not permitted. When an 1 allied advance occurs the cheering is enthusiastic. i CONVICTS AS OFFICERS. “ We never tell the military authorities . a man’s criminal history. It would be manifestly’ unfair for us to do so except in : the cases of men going into the Royal Army Medical Corps as stretcher-bearers, i for the stretcher-bearer is likely to have opportunities for thieving from wounded i officers and men. One 'man of criminal record had secured a commission. It almost certain that the story of his

past- would be learned by the men under him and that this would affect, unfortunately, his standing with them. As kindly as possible he .was dispensed with, the whole matter and the reasons behind being explained to him with perfect frankness. He agreed as to the necessity of the action and at once re-enlisted as a private. “In another case two warders were called up from Dartmoor Prison through the working of the enforced enlistment plan. To their horror they discovered that the officer above them was in exconvict who had served his . time under thorn. The officer, who had proved himself a first-class man, stayed where he was. They were ■ transferred —and sighed with some relief. ■ "We at Scotland Yard feel certain that not only criminals who have served in the Army, but law-abiding-fnen .who have been in the trenches, will hate indoor life after the wav ends. I believe that the average city criminal will be much more likely to reform if he gets into some out-of-doors life. Military service has forced just that on many, and it is not impossible that thus scores of old habitual criminals will be transformed into useful citizens. Returning to their old-time city environment, such men easily might revert to their old modes of life. Going to the land they probably will not. Therefore the war, for many years after it is over, may affect cur criminal problem favorably. NEW OFFENCES. “ Since the war began several new offences have come into existence to offer the depleted police plenty of work to do. A hitherto unknown class of criminal has arisen, whose members wrongly pose as military officers, and, wearing the King’s uniform and being well-mannered, often have slight difficulty in getting bogus cheques cashed. Impersonators of officers, indeed, have become a considerable nuisance in the country. The bad sign here is that by no means all the men discovered at such work are Criminal Records Office individuals. Pome are quite new additions to the criminal fraternity. “ I believe the. fact that so large a proportion of the male population will have been under military discipline will tend greatly to decrease crime after the war. Even the man who, before the war ; had gone wrong or was going wrong will be benefited by his long experience side by side with decent men. In the case of many city-bred boys army life is offering a first opportunity for honest associates, first chances at decent food, first experiences away from drink, first opportunities to become physically fit, as well as to benefit by any sort of disciplinary training. I have not the slighe.st doubt that many real reforms will be. worked by military service, “ When I was stationed, at Dartmoor Prison I made as careful a study as I could of the influences which led its inmate? into crime. It was mv final decision that not less than 10 per cent, of the men there had been sent thence by degenerating influences of surroundings and upbringing. Curiously enough, it seemed plain to me that, while not mnny men were deflected into crime by general ill-health, the proportion of criminals who had weak hearts was very large. This point has not been worked out vet in all its significance. CRIME AMONG WOMEN. “ The war has had no noticeable effect on crime in Britain among females. It was expected by some that the entrance of women into employment hitherto monopolised by men might have a bad result, owing to the new freedom which increased incomes offer. But the pessimists were wrong. The women of England have risen to the situation in every sense of the word. They are using their new independence and their high wanes very wisely, on the whole. Of course, we can’t tell now what will happen after the war, but I, for one, am very optimistic.” THE SPY PROBLEM. From this topic we drifted into that of spies as a police problem.

'The spy difficulty in Great Britain Kow lias been reduced to very small dimensions,” Mr Thomson answered. “There are several reasons for this, chief among *• which is the fact that we have tightened up our ports of entry, a process made easy by the fact that there are so few shipping lines now running from the Continent It has become exceedingly difficult for the alien to move about. “Another reason for the decrease of the spy trouble is the foot that conditions have so changed that a spy, in order to be useful to Ina employers, needs to do something far more difficult and important than to send to some one of the northern neutrals or to Switzerland, for transmission into Germany, a code telegram indicating that a certaijj number v of tr oops have been sent to the front. The Germans are no longer interested in such matters. What they really would like to know mostly concerns the _ movements of the fleets and new devices which are being worked out for war use; but the spy can scarcely get information with regard to these things ‘ So the problem of the German spy has vanished almost wholly. I have read much of the matter which would-be spies are managing or attempting to send over to_ their countrymen, and it consists principally of_ paraphrases of what has been printed in British newspapers. We are all puzzled by the willingness of the German Government to pay good money for such useless information.”