JOINING LONDON POLICE

Southland Times, Issue 22157, 27 October 1933, Page 9

JOINING LONDON POLICE

STIFF TEST FOR RECRUITS. WAITING LIST OF 1000. A correspondent of the NewsChronicle, who lately applied to join the Metropolitan Police Force under Lord Trenchard’s new short-term service scheme, relates his experience. He says: An officer received me courteously in the entrance hall at New Scotland Yard and asked me to fill in a buff form, stating my name, address and business. I wrote “Inquiries regarding recruit-

ment” and waited. In a few moments I was shown into an ante-room, and a man in mufti described the steps I should have to take before I could be enrolled. First of all I should have to fill up a form—a white one. He gave me a copy. The form required to know my name, address, age, place of birth, whether I was single or married, how many children I had to support, my trade, height, weight, chest measurement (inflated and deflated), nationality, occupation of father (and mother), details of any previous appointment in the force, of any “offences” for which I had been convicted and (optimistically) why I had left my last six jobs. I thanked the man in mufti, and asked him what would happen when I had sent in the form. “If your quali-

fications are not regarded as satisfactory,” he told me, “you will be turned down right away. Otherwise, you will be put on the waiting list.” The waiting list, it appeared, already contained something like a thousand names. I was subsequently informed that if it was decided to fill, say, ten places, perhaps a couple of hundred applicants would be called up. If I were one of the lucky ones I should have to pay my own travelling expenses. Candidates come from all over the United Kingdom. There would be a medical examination, and if I passed that I should be permitted to pay a further 10/- and sit for an examination conducted by the Civil Service commissioners. I was given a booklet entitled “Conditions of Entry and Terms of Service”

in the Metropolitan Police. I discovered that I should be “under obligation to serve as and when required;" that a day never pass without some members of the force being called upon to display not only resourcefulness and courage but an instant willingness to risk their lives for others”; and that “the duties of the mounted branch. . . include the control of large gatherings and processions.” The normal hours of duty were eight per day (or night), performed continuously, with half an hour’s interval for refreshments. I must not fall into debt On page 35 I discovered that I should receive 53/1 per week (subject to one or two deductions). On page 22 I found that I could not marry for four years without the consent of the commissioner. On 53/1 per week? Just as welll