CHIEF 0F SCOTLAND YARD

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 5 December 1912, Page 7

CHIEF 0F SCOTLAND YARD

isITEIiIXTEN DEA l' FIiOEST,

THE KING'S TRIBUTE. I "i consuier yoius is cue hueyc de'tective department in the world,'" said tho King to Superintendent Frocst at tho last Ascot meeting, when his Majesty heard that that tho head of the C.1.1). was about to reche. Still in the prime of life- —he is not . much over 50—Superintendent Freest 'who has retired from Scotland Yard, affords a striking example of the success which can be achieved by a man who enters the metropolitan police 'force, providing lie possesses a few es--1 sential qualities which the superintendent himself has enumerated. Asked | what he considered to be the indispensable attributes of the successful detective, Mr Froest replied: "A man ' must be scrupulously honest. That is the first thing. He must be honest not only in the ordinary sense, but in hig professional capacity, so as to . deal absolutely fairly with the man j who is to be put on his trial. You i never can tell when you start en a ' thing how >it is soing to 'pan out.' The next essential is tact, which is another name for common-sense, and the third is good health."

MUST BE BOB.X TO IT. "But, after all, if a man is not Iwn to the work, you can't teach him. He may be a fine- interpreter and :>ble to j draw up an excellent report, but when it comes to getting down to our business that is?'the gift. My idea is to get men at twenty-one years of age \ and train them up. That is what we j are doing now, and the class of recruit

I who now presents himself is distinctsly satisfactory. I wanted three men j the other day—one to speak Freneh, J one to write shorthand, and another ' to speak German—and T got three Englishmen a fc once. Most of the re- . emits come from the country, and ! they make the best, men. They know j nothing about- London life; they come up with their .months wide open and they take it all down. If yon yet « young -fellow, the son of nice people. j who nav(l SP,, t hi" l to a grammarschool or have put him- into a bank or a municipal office, he makes a good man, as a. rule." | A BUSY CAREER. I Mr Freest, who was born at Bristol in ISoB, joined the metropolitan police force when .he was about twentyone years of age, and within a few week's found himself at Old Scotland j Yard. With the criminal investigation department he haji spent the pi*t thirty-two years, during which oeriod he has seen more than most of his contemporaries of ike famous notorious criminals who have ovule reluctant acquaintance -with the English police. Tn 1889 he St Chanj pel with. Littlechild to assist the "fri.sh nolice in connection ' »ith tbo Phoenix Park outrage,and in the following vear was on the track of the Fenians in Paris. "Those weie dangerous times." said Mr Freest. "To be an Englishman and a polieei man was to be- a marked man. When the Fenian trouble Iwl "••hsicb>d in Paris T cam" bnok tn I-ondon and have been mixed up with crime and erimimnals ever since. T bad charge of the, Jameson Raid rase and v, ent !to Madeira to ■moot the shi) wh'"h was bringing home 400 or 500 of Dr ! James'ons' hoys. They had been rr.p----i tured by Krugor, and I had to -'elect the. witnesses for the officers trial. I The others I landed at Plymouth ;";iid disbanded. During tho Poor war T. j was entrusted by tho colonial Govoruj ment with a mission which T am Had to say. was satisfactorily acconii'-'i.'b-ed. After the South African tiin I came back here and was promoted chief inspector nine years ago. Three years later- T succeeded Superintendent Hare. "■What do I consider the most interesting episode in-my career? Keeping London clear of international thieves during important State funotions. such as the two jubilees, the two funerals, and the two Cor-ona-t tions. Such events exerc'se an irresistible attraction on the gentlemen from the Continent, and on each oc- ' ca.sion thov came over like a swarm of locusts. Put as soon a?i they arrived iwe wore on them and let them know < icy were not wanted. .At King Edward's funeral and King Georges Coronation there was a notic"- ' able decrease in crime, and, as for the international thieves, they Mainly [were not there. Not a simile fore ion visitor lost a thing. T had a fre« , hand, and it was an absolute j-urcofi.V