FIRE RAISING

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 2

FIRE RAISING

HEW CRIME "RACKET" Scotland Yard inquiries into the fireraising conspiracy grow more involved every day. ‘ The People ’ reveals that not only fire-raising but smash-and-grab raids and other criminal activities are linked up with this sensational scandal. The more Scotland Yard chiefs probe into the affair the more widespread becomes the field of their operations. The secret dossier at the Yard is like a snowball—it grows every day. Insurance officials, prominent ex-police-meu and racketeers are all involved in the case. The dossier, which is locked away in a safe, is the record of the investigation into the Fire Gang conspiracy, and the charges levelled against officials and alleged accomplices by Leopold Harris. Since the conclusion of the case against Fire Salvage Chief, Captain Miles, 'the care with which this amazing dossier has been guarded has been more than doubled. For the record is now of immensely greater value from the point of view of the prosecution, in that a jury has placed the stamp of its approval on the evidence of Harris, the fire-raiser, despite the fact that he is a convicted felon.

The Miles case was regarded by the authorities as merely a test case in the effort to clean up everyone criminally connected with the racket. The statements made by Harris since his sentence have covered a width of field' never dreamt of by the investigators. So grave and sensational were some of the charges, and so important the names of persons involved, that at first the authorities were inclined to regard the statements as those of a bitter and revengeful man. It was for this reason that the Miles case, sensational as it was, was viewed as merely touching the fringe of the , case. , It was a test of the reliability of Harris’s allegations.

In the meantime, however, the convicted fire-raiser had made far more serious charges against other officials and private individuals. Some of these the authorities hold to be exaggerated and incapable of proof. Many of the others, however, arc believed to be fully as convincing as those made in the Miles case. The financial transactions of several of the suspects have, been the subject oj' close investigation, and material evidence has been added to the dossier. So far-reaching is tho nature of the charges in this dossier that only Lord Trenchard, the Commissioner of Police, and one or two other officials know all its contents.

Each man knows only the small section of the report he has compiled, thus practically excluding the possibility that any of the individuals concerned could become aware even that lie is seriously suspected. This secrecy is two-fold in purpose. First, it prevents any suspect escaping the penalty of his crimes by flight or covering up of evidence; and secondly, it avoids suspicion being cast upon innocent individuals.