BURGLARS AS BOMB THROWERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2687, 5 February 1916, Page 6

BURGLARS AS BOMB THROWERS

REMARKABLE DECREASE IN ' LONDON CRIME. ' The enterprising burglar is apparently otherwise engaged just now. This is his season, and one would imagine that the anti-Zeppelin gloom of London after the sun has gone to bed w-ould ba remarkably to his liking. But tho pjacc thereof knows him 110 more. JJverywhere there is a discount 011 crime. / To prove this it was only necessary to look in at the Central Criminal . Court yesterday, which lias just finished its .shortest session on record. In the great vaulted hall, which is generally full of bustle, there was not a soul, save the two six-foot policemen at tho door. Upstairs two Courts were sitting, drowsily. Tho Judge's Court —tho famous No. 1 — has been closed for some days, Lord Coleridge having had practically nothing to do. As for the Calendar Christmas number —almost invariably a- budget of rich, things in evil-doing—it is this year a mero shadow of its old self, with only 50 cases all told, and most of them pleasingly trivial. For instance: Larceny cases 10 Receiving stolen property... 5 Fraud 5 Embezzlement 5 Forgery 3 Trading with the enemy ... 1 Murder 1 Within living memory never has there been a shorter list. "What has become of tho cracksmen?" asked a "Daily News" representative of a well-known detective,' who was sitting in Judgo Athcrlcy-Jones's Court idly twiddling hii thumbs. "Tossing bombs in' Flanders, "was the reply. "Doing legitimate mining—scouting, and all that sort of thing. And from what I hear he's a first-rate hand at collecting souvenirs and receiving stolen property from the Huns! "Here is an actual incident which came within my own experience the other day. I was walking along Cockspur Street when a bronzed and muddy soldier with his arm in a sling stopped me and shook hands energetically with his sound fist. 'Well, Mr. ,' he said. 'Pleased to meet you. How, are the boys?' "Though I remembered his face, I couldnjt fix him up somehow at first. 'The last tirao wo parted,' ho said, 'was on the front doorstep 1 of tho Black Maria. Six months, Mr. ; don't you remember?' "Then 1 did."