The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-13
DECREASE IN CRIME CAUSED BY ABSENCE
 OF CROOKS AT FRONT
Serious Misdemeanors All most Unknown in London and Courts Have Almost
 Nothing to Do
By ''Hop''

London, April 5-One of the endless results of the world war has been 8 gentle boom in the trade in white kid gloves in England. White kids'' are presented to police court and other mag istrates over here when there are no cases to be tried by the tribunals over which they preside, and since the fight ing started the observance of this cus- tom has been so frequent an occurrence throughout the whole country that the newspapers have ceased to chronicle it.
 Crime in Britain, as a matter of fact, has diminished in quite an extraordinary way since Armegeddon burst forth, the explanation being that most of the erst- while crooks and criminals have joined the army. In some quarters it is evi- dently not thought quite patriotic to ad- init this. The editor of certain penny week, for example, on being questioned bluntly by correspondent as to whether the diminution in crime was due to large number of criminals having donned khaki, replied that this was certainly not the case, adding the astonishing ex- planation that the falling off in wrong doing was owing to the fact that most of the rogues were Germans, who are now safely interned!
 Detectives and other representatives of the law, however tell different story
 
 they met this or that renowned porch climber or "crib-cracker" wearing his majesty's uniform and heard from him stories of war adventure that, in his own words ''beat the old game hollow
 In consequence of all this, the central criminal court, the "Old Bailey of other days, has finished it's shortest session on record. The Christmas Calendar" al- most invariably budget of rich things in evil-doing, was this year a mere shadow of it's old self with only 50 cases all told and most of them pleasingly trivial. For instance, the larceny cases numbered ten, those of fraud and receiv- ing stolen property five each, and there were an equal number of embezzlement cases. There were three cases of forgery, one of trading with the enemy, and only one of murder. Within living mem- ory never has there been shorter list. In the police courts the story is the same; prosecutions for burglary, forgery, coin ing, receiving, all have lessened to minimum.
 There are other reasons besides en- listment for the decrease in crime, how ever" said a Scotland Yard man with whom the writer talked. With the in- creased demand for labor of all kinds. petty thieves find it easier to make an honest than dishonest living. There are also fewer temptations. Drinking has been cut down by the restriction Of hours and the no-treatlng order. Thus two of the chief sources of crime in usual times have been cut off
 Yet, while ordinary crimes are very slight, the war has brought about many fresh and ingenious tricks. which the police have to be vigilantly on the watch for. Bogus street collections have been promptly stamped out, but more difficult are the frauds on army and navy allow ances.
 "In one case, soldiers wife, whose baby died, borrowed another, in order that she might continue drawing shil- lings week. Another woman committed bigamy with two soldiers, and drew separation allowances from two different districts. "HorGes of adventurers and impostors have taken advantage of the war. Sew eral of those who thought that all the talent of the detective service was en- gagged on war work are now rueing their optimism behind locked doors One of these is Serge Miniovitch, Russian. who is one of the cleverest cosmopolitan rogues living.
 ''As a Russian secret service agent, engaged on special mission in this coun- ] try, he ingratiated himself with numbers of well known people and tradesmen, to { whom he boasted of his intimacy with Lord Kitchener, Sir Edward Grey, the Russian ambassador and Mir. Asquith As result, many of his dupes parted with large sums of moneJ.''