LONDON POLICE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 September 1932, Page 2

LONDON POLICE

BRAINS AND BRAWN MANY- UNIVERSITY MEN INCLUDED IN FORCE RIGOROUS TRAIING REQHIRED. The London police force is becoming very superior. Visitors to London who have occasioh to ask their way of the nearest constable are no longer surprised when they are given directions in the exalted Oxford manner. Thanks to an infusion of uhiversity blood the constabulary is no longer famous merely for its brawn. It- has hrain too, and no end of "refinement." This, is because many yo'ung men who have graduated at Oxford, Cambridge, and other seats of culture and learning find it so difficult to find "professional posts that they arq only * too glad to beconie policemen, starting at the munificent wage of fift'y shillings a week. Lest it be thought that intelligence is accepted in the force on special terms, one should mention at once that there is no favoured treatment or ,soft duty for the.se adventurous graduates. They begin at the bottom of the ladder, just as P.C. Smith of Hackney does, and their future depends entirely upon the manner in which they acqut themselves as constables. Indeed, before they can even wear the uniform of an ordinary constable they must submit to the usual period of rigorous training at Peel House, and to the exacting test of probationership. Consequently, there are more thorns than roses hestrewing the path of duty. Among the latest candidates for admission to the ranks of the metropolitian police is Mr. J. W. P. Blenkin, the Cambridge University golfer, who has already passed the preliminary examination. His skill with the irons may stand him in good stead when he draws his trusty baton! Two university graduates are serving as constables in the special branch of Scotland Yard, and another, N. R. Dobree, the Oxford "blue," is on the roll of the notable "C" division at Vine Street. At Portsmouth Constable Basil John Karslake is the son of Brigadier-General Karslake, an old Harrovian, and the grandson of an admiral, and he has two of- his colleagues graduates of Pembroke and London Universities. "Educated men who are physically fit are finding the police force to-day offers them tremendous scope and opportunity," explained an authority at the "Yard." "Most of them enlist with a view to becoming members of the C.I.D, although perhaps a few have their eyes on higher posts." At present however, most of them view the prospect of advancement from the lowly plane of the P.C. The view is distant hut full of hope.