HEREDITARY CRIMINAL TRIBES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9740, 5 March 1914, Page 8

HEREDITARY CRIMINAL TRIBES.

A conference summoned on the, invitation of the Government of the United Provinces of India to discuss the difficult problem of dealing with the hereditary criminal tribes, was held at Agra a few weeks ago. ' Mr Douglas Straight, Inspector-General of Police in the United Provinces, presided, and Commissioner Month Tinker explained the methods adopted by the Salvation Army in their settlements, and the results which had so Jar been obtained. Resolutions were passed which will form the basis of future action, and the Times of India sees every reason to hope that permanent results of the highest import?.uce, both to the unfortunate waifs and strays of society and to the law-abiding pubjic will result. Some idea of the extent of the area involved in the operations con- 1 templated may be formed from the list of members attending the conference, comprising representatives from most of the States in the Hajputana and Central India agencies, as well as representatives of the Centra! Provinces and I'nitod Provinces Govern-; fronts. Scattered over this area an army of well over 50.000 hereditary' criminals eke out a precarious existence by crime. Some, four years ago Sir John Hewett, the then LieutenantGovernor of the United Provinces, invited the Salvation Army to undertake the reformation of some of the most dangerous of these criminal tribes, and tho work has been progressing steadily since then with most hopeful results. Hie criminal tribes themselves are now evincing a desire to be taken into the Salvation Army settlements, where in a short time many who till then bad never dreamt of'obtaining their living otherwise than by organised and often violent crime, who had spent their lives roving over the country, never daring (o show themselves hi the intervals between their sentences of imprisonment, have now settled down and become prosperous cultivators and craftsmen.