ack into the evil ways
or among evil associates. By this means it is endeavoured to cut at the
very roots of crime in this country, for it is a proved fact that the
larger proportion of serious offences which are brought before the
courts are the work of the habitual criminals.

Thus, of 10,165 persons convicted of serious crime at assizes and
quarter sessions throughout the kingdom during 1913 nearly 70 per cent.
were recognised as having been convicted before--a significant fact
which emphasises the necessity of the eternal vigilance of the C.R.O.

While I was gathering material on this subject I was prepared to find
that the police acted with severity. I was agreeably disappointed. I
found that they go as far as possible to the other extreme.

In effect, the law says that a licence-holder or supervisee shall
produce a license when called upon, shall not habitually associate with
persons of bad character, shall not lead an idle or dissolute life,
shall report themselves monthly to the nearest police station (this
regulation does not apply to women), and report any change of address.

But the law is carried out with a broad appreciation of the variations
in human nature--even criminal human nature. There are dangerous men who
must be watched closely; there are others it is unnecessary to keep
under close surveillance.

A licence-holder, as distinct from a supervisee, is not necessarily
likely to become a criminal again. A trusted clerk in a City office who
has forged his employer's name, a solicitor absconding with trust funds,
a man who has committed manslaughter are not to be classed in this
respect with burglars, jewel thieves, or coiners.

It is true that either class may hold licences, but the former are not
often sentenced to police supervision. They are not, in that sense,
habitual criminals. So the circumstances of every case are taken into
consideration.

Sometimes a man is allowed to report himself by letter instead of in
person. Nor is a detective attached to a district, who might be known as
a police officer, allowed to make inquiries when the mere fact of his
calling might make things unpleasant for a licence-holder. A stranger
from Scotland Yard is sent. This applies especially when a man is in a
workhouse, a hospital, a Church Army labour home, and such places.

To a limited extent the work of the department has been lightened by the
scheme which resulted in the establishment of the Central Assoc