Camp Hill already exists for the habitual criminal, but we have, as already stated, made no provision for the habitual delinquent. Again, there are the younger convicts who may be sent to a reformatory (see proposal above) after the first stage of penal servitude; I doubt whether it will be a sound policy to allow the latter to associate in the same establishment with habituals of either class. But this is a matter for the Commissioners, and there need only be one adult reformatory in the eyes of the law. Association in 'Homes' will not matter, as incorrigibles will not contaminate each other, whether they be delinquents or criminals.

Adult reformatories should be run very much on the lines of existing Borstal institutes, but in both a weekly wage and a canteen should be an important feature. In fact, I would rely on this weekly wage and other privileges, which could be withdrawn, as the best means of maintaining order; also as an inducement to benefit by the instruction given, both mental and manual. But the weekly wage must be a real wage, not, as at present, a small gratuity on release. One half of this wage (to be paid in tokens, not coins of the realm) might be regarded as pocket-money for the purchase of small luxuries from the canteen, the remaining half to be banked till the inmate is discharged.

The reformatory for delinquents will require, I fear, a penal section, the unruly inmates being treated with more severity and few privileges, but instruction to continue nevertheless. These inmates should be made to realise that the reformatory meant the discipline of a prison, or the comparatively free life of a school, and their conduct would decide the matter. In no case, however, should an inmate be sent back to a prison for delinquencies in the reformatory, but a convict might be returned to penal servitude to complete the unexpired portion of the sentence should he or she prove to be an unsuitable subject.

Before closing the reformation chapter I will summarise my suggestions.

Reformative institutions should include :

(1) Junior training schools for children of thirteen and a half years and less.

(2) Senior training schools for youthful offenders from thirteen and a half to eighteen years (the said offenders not to be retained after eighteen years of age).

(3) Borstal for young persons from seventeen to twenty-one years of age.

(4) Reformatories for adults.

The latter to be classified (a) for first offenders, criminals; (b) habitual delinquents.

The committals to all these institutions to be never for less

than three or more than five years.

VOL. XCVIII-No. 582

Ω

PREVENTIVE DETENTION

Finally, there is the question of 'Homes.' We must not confuse homes' with reformatories, as we do now at Camp Hill. A home should be legally recognised as an asylum for incorrigibles, and the committals should be during His Majesty's pleasure,' as when committing to a criminal lunatic asylum. Moreover, in our treatment the asylum methods should be followed; there should be no further attempt to reform by either repression or reformation. The offender should be recognised as outside the Criminal Law for all offences which he or she might be guilty of hereafter, short, say, of murder. In primitive societies the incorrigible disappears. Civilisation does not permit of this; so I suggest that we should simply remove the offender, not from the face of the earth, but from our midst. My definition of an incorrigible as set forth above may be unacceptable, but that is a detail as long as habituals of either class are not repeatedly sent to either prisons or penal servitude. We must define these incorrigibles, both criminals and delinquents, for whom the punishment is a home for an indeterminate period. Unless I am mistaken, the judges will be the most difficult to persuade that the reforms indicated are desirable, especially the automatic increase suggested for the second and third convictions, as it will be regarded as an infringement of the Court's prerogative.

COLES PASHA.

1925

THE FISHING INDUSTRY AND THE NATION

On the passing of those who have played distinguished or influential parts in the national life it is customary for their memory to be paid at least the tribute of an obituary notice.

Unfortunately, however, the same practice does not prevail in the case of institutions or similar inanimate organisations, even though of paramount importance; these are too often allowed to disappear 'unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.'

An instance of this may be found in the recent demise of the Association of British Fisheries, which was formed some two years ago to assist and promote the interests of an industry that has played no insignificant part in our rough island story, and has aided to no small degree in the creation and maintenance of our sea power and of our naval and mercantile marine.

In May 1923, Ministers of the Crown, Privy Councillors, peers, members of Parliament, heads of Government departments, eminent men of science and men prominent in the commercial world, as well as those directly connected with every aspect of the fishing industry, assembled in the historic Fishmongers' Hall, by London Bridge, to launch, with due éclat and high hopes, an association which should represent every interest connected with, and bring renewed prosperity to, this great industry.

That the Press clearly recognised the national importance of the event is shown by the number of commendatory articles and newspaper reports appearing at the time. Two years later, however, viz., in May 1925, the Association by its own decision came to an untimely end without the newspapers which had devoted columns to its birth sparing even the space of a short paragraph to record its death.

This omission was the more remarkable because the death of the Association, as is shown by the official report explaining its dissolution, was distinctly a case of suicide, and cases of suicide do not usually escape the notice of the Press !

In the circumstances it may be worth while to examine, as a coroner's inquest might do, the causes underlying the disappearance of the Association, which in their turn may throw

some light on the needs and requirements of the fishermen and of their calling.

Now what were the reasons that made the establishment of an Association of British Fisheries seem desirable in the first instance? Its main objects, as stated by the Chairman, the late Mr. James A. Robertson, were as follows :

To be a centre at which a policy for the fisheries will be determined ; to provide an advisory committee that will be consulted by the Government in matters affecting the fisheries; to bring unity and order into fishery organisations; to promote education and research work in fishery problems; to encourage invention; to promote the increased production and better distribution of fish in a fresh state to the community; to bring knowledge to the public of the food value of fish, and the best method of cooking and serving; and to encourage and assist fishing as a sport.

These are all objects so laudable that it is small wonder they met with such general approval, and that the Association formed for such purposes should have been launched under distinguished auspices. But just because of the importance and laudability of its objects, it is the more lamentable that the Association should after so short a space of time have come to naught.

At first glance the average man in the street may not feel much concerned; he may think it is a matter primarily affecting fishermen and fishmongers. He may not realise that it is one in which he himself is directly concerned, or that the position of the fishing industry is, for many reasons, of vital importance to the very existence of this country and of the Empire.

Catch phrases regarding Britannia ruling the waves and being mistress of the seas are familiar to everyone. That the British Empire depends upon sea power is known to all, but it is perhaps not so generally known what exactly constitutes sea power. 'The trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world,' wrote a French author shortly after the victory of Trafalgar had exemplified the Themistoclean axiom that he who commands the sea is master of the situation. In the present day sea power implies air power. That air power is now essential to sea power may be freely recognised without going on to discuss whether or how far the former may in course of time supersede the latter. Air power is, however, only a recent and single element of sea power. A feeding fleet as well as a fighting fleet and a productive national maritime population, of which the sea fisheries are the nurseries, have always been so necessary to sea power that for centuries the fishermen have been the backbone of our naval supremacy. Visitors to the seaside, contrasting the smart appearance of men of the Royal Navy with that of the rough and unkempt-looking fishermen, may be inclined to forget that the latter are identically the same class and type as the former, but in the raw and undisciplined state. The fisheries may be called, in fact, Neptune's nurseries, the value of which to a country so essentially maritime as ours should be obvious to all. But, as The Times pointed out recently, few people realise how great a part the fishing industry has played in the development of maritime power in the case of all countries possessing a sea-coast. Instances from antiquity, such as Tyre and Sidon and ancient Greece, might have been cited by the writer, who went on to say :

It was the discovery of the new method of curing herrings about the time of the Reformation that enabled the Dutch to exploit the Continental markets and lay the foundations of their former great position as a naval Power; and the revival of the British fishing industry led in turn to the production of that hardy race of seamen which gave Great Britain its supremacy on the seas and laid the foundations of its unrivalled Empire. We have it on the authority of Admiral Jellicoe that during the Great War but for the trawlers the Grand Fleet could not have existed.

Admiral Beatty and other naval officers of the highest distinction might have been quoted to like effect, as well as the Ministry of Fisheries' official report on the part played by the fishermen in the war, thus justifying the prediction made forty years before by Queen Victoria's son, the late Duke of Edinburgh, who pointed out that it was our fishermen who defeated the great Spanish Armada, and prophesied that they would be equally valuable in the event of another such menace.

The splendid qualities of the fishermen and the debt we owe to them may be well known to some, but I cannot believe they are common knowledge, otherwise there would not have been so much public amazement at the skill and heroism they displayed during the war.

'Security is more important than opulence,' said Adam Smith, the father of Free Trade, in approving the Protectionist navigation laws. For this reason I make no apology for having given precedence to the question of national defence in attempting to demonstrate what the fishing industry means to the nation. But there are, of course, many other points of view the importance of which can scarcely be exaggerated.

For instance, one might mention the lifeboats, which have rendered such inestimable service to mankind, and which are manned entirely or mainly by fishermen, many of them men well past the prime of life. By their heroism, endurance, and selfsacrifice these men have, of course, gained the admiration not only of this country, but of the entire world. At the same time, these are but occasional, and not regular, services. In their daily lives, however, in the pursuit of their ordinary employment, fishermen regularly run risks as great, though not as spectacular, as those by which admiring crowds have been thrilled in watching