NO PLACE FOR BANDITS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6545, 29 February 1928, Page 3

NO PLACE FOR BANDITS

THE CANADIAN REMEDY GAOL AND THE LASH LONG TERMS IN PRISON' Canada is. becoming one of the most unhealthy places in the world for professional criminals, according to the current issue of the Canadian Police Bulletin, which analyses the effectiveness of punishment methods now in vogue throughout the Dominion. Tho lash is the best weapon which Canadian justice has found in its war on crime. ‘'All over the country,” says the Bulletin, “criminal court judges are making it quite clear that crimes of violence are to be rewarded not only by long terms of imprisonment, but by that which all criminals dread:, „the lash.” In Montreal, it is reported, Mr. Justice Perrahlt sentenced two men charged with robbery and violence to terms in the penitentiary and to receive twelve lashes each. "The biggest Of tho two broke down and sobbed convulsively when he heard that he was to be whipped,” the article states. “But ho had no compunction whatever about the injuries he inflicted upon the man he robbed and showed great cunning in luring him to a place where he could be maltreated.” . Mr. Justice Pcrrault gave this warninb. “I want bandits of your ilk to know that if they plan to recommence an epidemic of robberies with violence here they will llnd tho law standing formidably in their path. Per my own part, as unpleasant as it may be for me, I shall apply the law in all its severity—that is to say that I shall not hesitate one minute to prescribe the lash.” At Sarnia, Mr. Justice Meredith imposed one sentence of 25 years and 21 lashes on a. 21-year-old man, 20 years and 10 lashes each on two others aged 20, and 20 years and 15 lashes on ono man 42 years old. All were convicted of an attack of a young woman after kidnapping her from her escort. Similar sentences arc reported from Toronto and London, Ontario. Summing up the situation, the Bulletin says ; “There is a unanimity of action about this which suggests that the men who are sworn to administer ■ tho law impartially believe that the hardened criminal should not bo coddled. “And it is not necessarily tho man who has been convicted of several offences who is u hardened criminal. It is obvious that there is a growing class of men, most of them young, some of them more youths, who arc determined that they will take what they want by force. To them murder is a secondary consideration, the honour of s woman nothing, the attainment of their wishes and desires, by any means everything. “To that state of mind there can only be one answer for the protection of tho groat majority of law abiding citizcnhood in the state. That it is being given promptly, effectively and with a due regard for a fair show for those whoso conduct makes it necessary, must be a source of gratification to those who do not want to sec this country Chicagoiscd ’ ’