TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 31 July 1934, Page 4

TIMELY TOPICS

A DEBT TO THE POLICE. Says "The Times”: When the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis issued his annual report a few weeks I ago, two features of it claimed special attention. , The first was the speed with which the reorganisation foreshadowed in last'year’s report has boon, pushed forward. The second was the deplorable condition of the men’s quarters. \ The section houses, in which most of the 4000 or more unmarried constables arc required to live by a rule of the service, were eloquently described by the commissioner. Many of them date from many are indicated, and few arc even equipped with electric light. Three small houses have been built and two reconstructed since the War. But the i rest provide cheerless homes for men off duty and deny them even the comfort of privacy. For the moat part the men have to get their own meals, cooked by each man for himself. Dinginess and discomfort are the normal characteristics of the houses as the commissioner himself describes them. No reader could have been surprised at his conclusion that the standard of comfort provided for men whose duty regularly entails exposure to all kinds of -weather is definitely too low and extremely detrimental to the efficiency of the Force.” The only surprise was in the modest recommendation —‘ ‘ something of an anti-climax —that “two modern up-to-date section houses, each equipped with a. restaurant should be provided ■ at an early date.” f 3> <S> <s> <?> BRUTE FORCE IN POLITICS.

‘‘When you see brute force used which can only engender a bitterness which is quite foreign to the .British character, it is quite time it should bo stopped,” said Mr .T, €. C. Davidson, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in a recent speech. “What we want here is stability and political peace. There is nothing which would disturb our recovery so much as extreme action either from the Left or from the Right. I have no use for foreign virus being introduced into the British Constitution. It would only poison it. Just because British democracy has not worked when it has been copied in foreign countries is no reason why we should discard it in the .land of its birth. Wo know how to work it because we made it. | The liberty which we founded at Bunnymedc we are going to hold, and just because oilier countries have parted with it is no reason why methods which they have found necessary to adopt in their countries should be adopted in ours. ” <»> <s> WORDS OF WISDOM. Much does i;e gain uho, when he loses, learns.- Buonarolti. ! <s> <?> <?> <f* <s> TALE OF THE DAY.’ “Mother, teacher’s awful mean.” “Hush, my son; you mustn’t say that!” “Well, she is? She ashed for my knife to sharpen my pencil to give me a bad mark!” “King of Elite Fliers.” Described by the police as the “king of kite fliers,” Robert Thomas Roberts, aged SO, was sentenced at Dunedin yesterday to 12 months’ imprisonment for issuing valueless cheques. It was stated that since 1917 Roberts had been in court on 22 occasions, had faced tiO charges of false pretences, and had boon sentenced to terms of imprisonment aggregating 20 years.