NOT SO MERRIE ENGLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 December 1945, Page 5

NOT SO MERRIE ENGLAND

WAVE OF GANGSTERISM MORE POLICE NEEDED LONDON, December 8. The Chief Constables throughout Britain are urging the Home 'Secretary to speed up the recruiting of young policemen as part of a nationwide campaign against gangsterism. The “Daily Mail” says:Gangsterisni is now sweeping the country. A. • shortage of young policemen is the crux of the problem. There has not been any recruitment of young men since the outbreak of the war, although ‘ 4700 policemen have been released from the services since October 31. Nine thousand more will be released by December 31. The present police strength has been maintained at the pre-war level of 63,000 men only by the use of auxiliary reserves and by retaining men who were due for retirement. Chief Constables will visit the Far East as part of a recruiting drive to interview servicemen intending to join the police force on their demobilisation. Other, steps are being taken to check the wave of crime. Senior Scotland Yard detectives -.are attending a special conference of the National Chamber of Trade officials to discuss new methods of co-opera-tion between the police and the traders. It is believed that a new scheme, worked out by Scotland Yard to cut down the number of big thefts experts, will be put into operation from warehouses and from shops. RUSSIAN ESTIMATES LONDON, December 8. The Moscow correspondent, of Reuter’s News Agency says: Soviet Russia is being presented with a grim picture of the conditions in England. One newspaper, “The Bolshevik,” says: “The British are colder and hungrier than they were during the war. Britain awaits the Winter with alarm.” - Another Russian newspaper, “The New Times,” expresses the' opinion that the change of the Government in Britain has not affected the housing situation in the slightest. The Moscow “Izvestia,” declares: “Not a single large bomb-damaged building in London has been properly restored.” Reuter’s correspondent adds: “Soviet News Agency messages from London, published by the London Press, have given emphasis to the worst aspects of the British scene.” TUG TRAGEDY (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Dec. 9. Four men were drowned when a tug assisting the Royal Mail liner Highland Monarch at Southampton sank after collision with the liner. Three of the engine-room staff were trapped and went down with the tug. A deck boy jumped overboard but could not swim, and was also drowned. ROYAL CHRISTMAS LONDON, Dec. 9. The Royal Family this -.- year will hold a Christmas party at Sandringham, for the first time since 1939. The King and Queen, the two Princesses, Queen Mary, and the Duchess of Kent and her three children will attend. Princess Margaret is now well on the way to recovery, and she is expected to be fit enough to travel with the family. The King will deliver a Christmas broadcast from, the same room from which his father inaugurated Royal Christmas broadcasts. LATER. Princess Margaret Rose, recovering from her recent appendicitis operation, travelled in a closed car on Saturday from Buckingham Palace to Windsor with the King, Queen and Princess Elizabeth.