The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1901-11-07
WHERE THIEVES ARE SAFE.
Refugees for Criminals In London
That the Law Does Not
Reach.

One of the natural harbors or ref
upes for the criminal classes is the
cfty of London Indeed, all large cit
ties offer measure of security to
lawbreakers, but the English metroP-
oils being the most populous city III
the world gives such characters eNcep-
tional opportunities for conceallnent'
despite the fact that the metropolitan
police force is the most efhclent ana
successful in the world. The fact is
that to find hiding criminal IN Lon
don with its teeming millions OF peo-
pie of all nationalities) is tremen-
dous task and in the case of alien GRIM
inals the magnitude of the task is dou-
bled by the fact that the "descrlp-
tions" supplied to Scotland Yard by
foreign police authorities are proverb-
tally meager and unreliable when they
are not absolutely idiotic.
Despite. however, the advantages
London offers fugitives from justice,
when a British criminal commits big
crime whereby he obtains the neces-
sary funds he generally gives the
''ANis of the Empire" a wide berth
and endeavors to get some where
abroad under vague sort of impress
sion that anywhere is safer thanthe
country in which he committed hisV
crime.
The question of whittier he shall HE
himself is one which he must find con
sidera BILE difficulty in answering, az
the difficulty is yearly being incre
by the concluding of more and
eNtradition treaties, and tn
ing of those countries with
United States already has
ties to more proper sense OF their
obli@a tons. Owing to the existence OF
scores of extradition treaties, almost
every country is nominally as unsafe
to fugitive criminals Excepting those
''wanted'' for political crimes) as the
snug island, but nominally is not actu-
ally, for which difference the emigrat-
ing evildoer has every reason to be
thankful.
More than half the treaties the gov
eminent holds with foreign countries
for the eXtradition of criminals who
fly the country are practically dead
letters. Were it not for this fact there
would be only one actual refuge for
fugitive lawbreakers. whereas there
are dozens. The BONN islands, in the
Pacific ocean. and off the coast of
Japan, constitute the sole remaining
nominal refuge for the criminal
cld SSeS, ana lnlS refuge Is iioi
by any but the lowest and most Grim
NAL.
Men who have com mitted crimes for
which death. lifelong imprisonment.
Siberia. or perhaps torture. would be
due punt shment. have flown TO the
BONN islands from all parts of the
world. and have set up a small colony
of all that is most brutal in human
nature, but the %entlemanly criminal,
the bland fraud from the city who
decampS with tens of thousands. pre-
fers less certain safety with an ele-
,nent of comfort. and would probab bly,
rather be arrested than be forced to
patronize the Bonin islands. particu-
larly as there is now every hope of this
refuge being covered by an eXtradition
treaty in the near future.
Argentina is still a happy hunting
ground for criminals, and .Jabez Bal
tours capture was an exceptionally
good stroke of luck for law and ius-
tice. There are scores upon scores Of
criminals safely retired in the Argen-
tine Republic.