STORIES OF CHIEF INSPECTOR DREW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 269, 6 November 1908, Page 4

STORIES OF CHIEF INSPECTOR DREW.

Mr. Edward Drew, the senior chief inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, rccenHy tendered his resignation, which was incepted. The last occasion on which Mr. !)i '■ figured prominently in tile -public twas at the trial of Mr. 1!. S. Kiev's. when lie was called to detail the conversation which he overheard between Mr. ,1. B. Joel, the prosecutor, and Mr. Charles Hills, the chief witness for the prosecution, from a place of concealment behind a curtain in Mr. Joel's house.

Mr. Drew, who has earned the reputation of being one of the rery greatest detectives in cases of jewel robbery ever known, is about to set up a private detective agency ill the West End of Ijoudon, not so much with the object cf detecting crime as to take charge of the arrangements of people of wealth when tiiey move a'wut from place to place, and so render their valuables safe from thieves. .Mr. Drew was entitled to retire after twenty-five years' service, and had contemplated leaving the service some twelve months ago, lnfi having several long and important cases in hand lie decided to clear them up before he lei'l. lie retires upon a full pension.

Mr. Drew lias risen from the rank?, like all the great officers in the police force. lie acted as a constable at Via street Police Station for about twelve months, when, in consequence of a number of .smart captures, lie was promoted to be detective, lie served in that capacity at N'ine-stveet aud at Kensingt-m tor about twelve years, when he joined the stall' at Scotland Yard. From tlivre he returned to Vine-Street as Tiead of the C Division detective force, only to ,be transferred later to an inspectorship al Scotland Yard. He had worked h ; s way to within oae step of the very top of the ladder before retiring.

For many years Air. Drew always had the charge of any valuable present* which were being taken to the King at Sandringham, and lie guarded the Cullinan diamond when it was taken to Amsterdam to be cut.

No jnan had a greater knowledge ot bogus nobilities than Mr. Brew. "Do you know/' said a magnificently-dressed 'crook'' to Mr. Drew, as he shook with indignation, "Do you know you are speaking to the Chevalier d' Orleans?"

•• I am sorry to see. Chevalier, 7 ' calmly returned the inspector, "that you have fallen so low in the world. Why, it is hardly twelve months ago that you were the Prince de Moscow, the- Duke of Leipsie. the Baron de la Roche, and the I Count d'AUmtesse. Jf you are not ca-.'e-I fill, you will .soon be simple Barn\v | Stokes, of San Francisco, again." And [that was the name under which lie was J charged in the dock a little later. : The robbery Of the .Marquis of Anglesey V jewels, worth CoO.OOO, and the remarkable recovery of a wonflcrful ! pearl pin was one of Mr. Drew's great* ! e>t cases. The recovery of a diamond necklace stolen from Messrs. ChristiA show-room, \vhere the dilVeivne i u the colour of the tab marking the necklace 1 b*d to the undoing of the thief, was another. i One other story is a remarkable testi-| iimnv to .Mr. Drew's astuteness. A quantify of jewellery had been stolen j from a We«t "End establishment, and one! ot the assistants was suspected. On | visiting his residence Mr. Drew picked up a trowel, which had some earth sticking to it. This gave him the idea that the jewels had beea buried. He found where the trowel had been bought by (lie suspected assistant. "lie aUo bought a cash-bos like 1 hi-,'* said (ho ironmonger, pointing to one. Mr. Drew bought another exactly like it, juid, plastering a little earth round it. carried if to the presence of [he suspect.

So yon have found it," cried the iv tonndi'd a s^'^taut . "You discovered , where I buried it," and -proceeded to talk in such a way that Mr. Drew had no difficulty in going to the spot and recovering 'the real box and all the jewellery.—" Daily Mail."