The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-17
WHERE THIEVES ARE SAFE.
Refugees for Criminals In London
That the Law Does Not
Reach.

One OF the natural harbors or ref
uges for the criminal classes is the
city of London. Indeed, all large cit
ties offer measure of security to
lawbreakers, but the English metrop-
oils being the most populous city in
the world gives such characters eXcep-
tional opportunities for cOncealment,
despite the fact that the metropolitan
police force is the most efficient and
successful in the world. The fact is
that to find a hiding criminal in Lon
don with its teeming millions of peo-
pie of all nationalities) is a tremen-
dous task. and in the case of alien Grim
inals the magnitude of the task is dou-
bled by the fact that the "descrip-
tons" 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 British criminal commits big
crime whereby he obtains the neces-
sary funds he generally gives the
"AXis of the Empire" wide berth
and endeavors to get somewhere
abroad under a vague sort of impress
sion that anywhere is safer than the
country in which he committed his
crime.
The question of whittier he shall HE
himself is one which he must find con-
Il HI ! -, nd
he difficulty is yearly being increased
by the concluding of more and more
aXtradition treaties. and the awaken
ing of those countries with which the
United States already has such trea-
ties to a more proper sense of their
obligations. 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
hy 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
classes. and this refuge is not favored
by any but the lowest and most Grim
/ NAL.
Men who have committed crimes for
which death, lifelong imprisonment,
Siberia, or perhaps torture, would be
due punishment. have flown to the
I 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 gentlemaniy criminal,
the bland fraud from the city who
1ecamps with tens of thousands, pre-
fers less certain safety with an ele
ment of comfort, and would probably
rather be arrested than be forced to
patronize the BONN islands, particu-
larly is 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 JUS
tice. There are scores upon scores of
criminals safely retired in the Argen-
tine Republic.