POLICE CORRUPTION IN PRUSSIA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3585, 10 March 1914, Page 3

POLICE CORRUPTION IN PRUSSIA.

THE COLOGNE DISCLOSURES

BERLIN, Jan. 21. j The disclosures that are now being made as to police corruption at Cologne, Halle, and other towns are ■exciting little less distrust and indignation among sober-minded Germans than liave the Zabern incidents. The Cologne lias come into the- greater prominence on ©count of the editor of a Socialist newspaper there having been fined £25 for libel—in other words, disclosing the Tact that Cologne police inspectors bad been accepting gifts from restaurant, and hotelkeepers. Though the court condemned the editor, public opinion believes that he really achieved a remarkable moral victory, and has rendered great public service by showing ur a most deplorable state of affairs the local police force. The matter is much more than a local one, however, as throughout Prussia, the police of Cologne are very much under the thumb of the central Prussian administration, so that some of the guilt for some of the widespread corruption which was proved in court ready falls to the account of tile Prussian State. The chief of the Cologne police, indeed, seemed to indicate this pretty dearly in the course of iris evidence. He said that the political police of Prussia were really far better provided for than the rest, hinting very bluntly that tlie evidence of some of his subordinates, according to which they were underpaid, was substantially correct. At the trial the existence was proved of a couple of intermediaries who had a reputation for being able to obtain police concessions where ordinary measures for obtaining them might be considered hopeless.. They were “cordial friends” of police officials. Men desiring a police concession were shown to liave paid them sums of from £ls to £75. Another seeker after favors advanced a curious kind of loan to the amount of £25 to the wife of one of the force.

More amusing than these incidents was the ease of the bookmakers at tlie local raeeeource. The race committee paid a grant of £25 to the police for preventing the bookmakers (an illegal profession in Germany) from pursuing business on the course. The bookmakers went one better and paid a few pounds' more to be allowed to continue. Another case referred to an inquiry by the Berlin police as to the whereabouts of a young lady who was thought to have eloped. The police at Cologne found her, hut when the man with whom she had eloped offered to pay £SO they told the police at Berlin that their search had been fruitless.