The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
Will Great Britain Take Repressive
Measures Against Anarchists?

II will be remembered that immedi-
atelv after an attempt was made to kill
King ALFONSO XIII. of Spain and his
English bride-an attempt reported to
have been concerted on British sofia
member of the House Of Commons in
auired whether prompt and effective
measures would be taken to prevent
anarchist conspiracies for assassination
from being organized in Great Britain.
For the moment a spokesman of the
Ministry put the question by, but it is
certain to be pressed, for public feeling
on the subject is for the first time
strongly aroused, now that an English
princess has been an object Of attack.
Timely and interesting, therefore, is the
averment made the other day by Sir
HOWARD VINCENT, NJ. P, who speaks
with the authority Of experience, that
the plots of anarchist assassins can be,
and have been, blocked successfully by
international cooperation.
Sir HOWARD VINCENT, it may be re-
called, was formerly the director Of GRIM
inal investigations in London, and in
conjunction with the late Lord CURRIE
and Sir GODFREY LUsHINGToN repre-
sented Great Britain in the Anti-Anarch-
list Conference convoked at Rome by the
italian Government after the Empress
of Austria had been assassinated by an
Italian anarchist in Switzerland. Ger
tain facts reoited by him in an interview
with the Paris correspondent Of the
| London Times are to lis entirely new
and are in a high degree suggestive.
Sir HOWARD reminded his interlocutor
that the Rome conference had been held
for the purpose of inducing European
nations and the United States of America
to take vigorous and concerted action for
the prevention of anarchist crime. It
was soon recognized, he says, that very
little could be accomplished in that di-
reotion by diplomatic His own
experience had indicated a more efficient
method of procedure. He had come to
the conclusion that the prevention of
anarchist crime was exclusively a matter
for international supervision and quick
REORGANIZATION between the police
forces of civilized nations. He pro-
posed, consequently, to the conference
that the chief officers of police in the
sixteen countries represented at Rome
should be formed into a special COM
mittee, deputed to consider, within closed
doors and without minutes or written
reports of their discussions and deci-
sions, what steps could most advanta-
geously be taken. His own conviction
that anarchist crime could be minimized,
if not wholly averted, by international
police communication and cooperation
was adopted, he said, by the committee,
and he went on to make an assertion
which, we imagine, will surprise most
readers, who have looked upon the Rome
conference as completely abortive, the
assertion, namely, that an international
system of supervision and control was
agreed upon, formulated and actually
carried out for eighteen months, during
which no anarchist outrages of a serious
character occurred.
Sir HOWARD does not allege to what
extent, if any, u Federal Government
became a party to the agreement. We
have in the United States no official cor
responding to the f~unctionary who ii
France and many another Continenta
country might be described as the heac
of the national police system. There is
to be sure, a chief of the Federal Secret
Service, and every considerable city hai
q municipal force Of its own. The rela