iation
for the Aid of Discharged Convicts--an amalgamation of various
prisoners' aid societies--which may recommend that a discharged prisoner
should be excused reporting to the police in certain cases. The result
has been that one man in every ten has been freed from the obligation to
report.

There is a little row of figures in the last issue of "Judicial
Statistics" which affords a striking illustration of the work of the
department. It shows that during the year 1913 the number of persons
under police supervision in the Metropolitan Police district was 1,197.
This is what happened to them:

Supervision expired 229
Supervision remitted by Home Secretary 3
Removed to other districts 111
Sent to prison 133
Missing 49
Left England 30
Died 7

No less than 421 were known or believed to be living honestly, and those
who were suspected of continuing their old career of roguery, but were
not convicted, numbered only 95.

The management of the office is vested in Chief Detective-Inspector
Thomas--a shrewd, able man, with a wide experience, in which he has
gained a keen and extensive knowledge of criminals of all types--who
deals with those who come under his jurisdiction with a firm and tactful
hand. He has a staff of twenty-two assistants, which includes the only
two women detectives--if they are strictly detectives--in the service.
In point of fact these ladies are employed by the Home Office and
attached to Scotland Yard, so that strictly they must not be considered
"policewomen."

These ladies are necessary in carrying out the policy of the department,
and their duties are wide. No man is allowed to visit a female
licence-holder or supervisee, mainly for the reason that his identity
might be suspected. So the women detectives take this in hand, and with
feminine tact manage to know all about their protegees, to give a
warning here, sympathetic advice there, in a way that would be difficult
for any man to do.

Their work takes them at times into some of the worst quarters of
London, and all their pluck and firmness are sometimes needed, for
habitual women criminals are usually worse subjects to handle than the
habitual male criminal.

For criminals, as for experts in other trades, al