EX-CONVICT V.C.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 199, 11 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

EX-CONVICT V.C.

MEN* WHO HAVE 'MADE GOOD" AT THE FRONT. A roll of honour which forms a noble commentary on the scrupulous impartiability of British police methods am! the undeviating fairness of British justice, is (says the "Daily Express) in the proud keeping of the authorities :it New Scotland Yard. It is a roll of honour of men wh > forsook their life of crime and voluntarily offered their lives to their country on the outbreak of war. There are seventy names on the roll—all of them o f men who were criminals and became clean-living, self-sacrificing soldiers when t.liey realised that their country was in peril. The majority of these seventy men hnv" been killed in action. Rome of iliem were decorated for bravery. One man was awarded the Victoria Cro.-s f<;r a hrilh'ant achievement in the German trenches in France: another was decorated by the Czar with the St. George Cross. This ro'l of honour is, of course, not for public inspection; it is a confidents! record, and framed in oak, it hangs in the private room of Mr. Basin Thomson, Assistant Commissioner, Criminal Investigation Department. Immediately underneath the scroll is a semi-circle containing the following :mt quotation cho-en by Mr. Ba- : 1 Thomson: — Even those who come short in other ways may redeem themselves by fight : ng bravely for their country; th.ey may blot out the evil with the good and benefit the Sta.te more by their public services than ever they injured her by their private actions.- Pericles to the Athen'air-.