BRITISHERS’ HONESTY

Southland Times, Issue 20897, 5 October 1929, Page 12

BRITISHERS’ HONESTY

REMARKABLE INSTANCES. NO DECLINE NOTICED. Britain can lay claim to be the most honest country in the world. Inquiries made by a Sunday Express representative showed that, although people are more forgetful than ever, petty pilfering is almost non-existent. "The general public is far more honest than ever before,” said the controlling official of the Lost Property Department of Scotland Yard. The department received in 1923 lost property to the extent of 130,673 articles; in 1924 these figures rose to 163,314 articles, in 1925 to 163,579, and last year to 181,069 articles. “Here is a typical case. A child showed his playthings 'to his mother. The collection of odds and ends included a diamond brooch picked up in the street. The child’s mother had the brooch valued. When informed that it was worth £5OO she handed it over to the police. “A taxicab driver who found jewels worth £l2OO in his cab handed them over to the police, although the chances of detection were remote. The London taxicab driver, as a matter of fact, is the most honest in the world. We had a case the other day of a taxicab driver who found £BOO in notes in his cab. Within an hour he had handed the property to the police. “Our department depends for its existence on the honesty of the public, and because it can do so it is envied by the police of New York, Paris and Berlin. Our methods could be easily copied, but a dishonest public would quickly render it useless.” Forty-one per cent, of the property deposited at Scotland Yard is recovered by the owners. Honesty is practised on a greater scale, too, in both hotels and restaurants. “Articles left by the public in hotels and restaurants controlled by us number 4500 every week,” said one official. Customers and waitresses have recently restored to their owners the following:—A packet of loose diamonds. An open envelope containing £2O in notes. Diamond brooch worth £5O. Engagement ring worth £250. One hundred and twenty-five walking-sticks. Five hundred umbrellas.”

“Less than 1 per cent, of our customers have abused the privileges conferred by the instalment system,” declared the head of a great furniture emporium, in a tribute to the honesty of “Mr Everyman.”