INCREASE IN MURDERS IN BRITAIN.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 August 1919, Page 7

INCREASE IN MURDERS IN BRITAIN.

There if an epidemic of nlul'ders_ This year there have been recorded sixty cases of murder and attempted murder. 111 about fifty of them the victim died, and in the majority of cases soldiers or ex-soldiers were 5?. plicated in some Way. Discussing the epidemic, a, crime -expert said the explanation was comparatively simple. There had always been an outbreak of murder cases after a war of any magnitude. In a war of the magnitude of this one, the after-effect is bound to be apparent. It has caused a, great mental disturbance and a nervous tension which must find an out:let_ This feeling does not end with the cessation of hostilities. One might liken it to a. sort of 111011-'..’01 iromentum which goes on when the cause has ceased to operate. It will take four or five years for the mental disturbance caused by the war to dis--appear, and in the ineantime, unless it is directed into peaceful and useful channel: this epidemic of personal violence will continue more or less.”