Evening star., 1928-05-27
Third Degree" in London

Tradition has clothed Scotland Yard
as a paragon among police agencies the
world over. 1t must have come as
shocking surprise to the liberty-loving
has fallen from its high estate by being
placed on the defensive in scandal
involving high-handed third degree"
methods Here in America, where
month seldom passes without dis
closure of such procedure on the part
of our police, the careful sitting OF the
charges against Scotland Yard will be
watched with more than ordinary in
terest. What makes the Scotland Yard
case SO interesting is that it concerns
everybody, for what happened to the
two respectable persons involved might
happen to anybody, and what happened
in Hyde Park might have happened,
and still might happen, anywhere.
The events leading to the charges
against Scotland Yard, which have
been aired in Parliament and are to be
investigated by that body, were these:
Sir Leo Money, former secretary to
David Lloyd George, and Miss Irene
Savage, a young woman of excellent
reputation and known both to Sir Leo
and to his wife, sat down after dark
together on a bench in Hyde Park.
They were under an arc light, and there
seems to have been nothing improper
in their actions. But to sit with young
lady in Hyde Park after dark is to court
suspicion, and when two piain-clothes
men appeared and carried the couple
of TO a police station the world read
Of the affair in the newspapers and
formed its own opinion. That Sir Leo
and Miss Savage were acquitted by a
magistrate without q stain on their
character" made no difference. Their
characters had been stained deeply by
the mere fact Of their arrest.
What was worse. however. was that
Miss Savage, without counsel, deprived
of communication with her friends, was
closeted for several hours with two
Scotland Yard inspectors, who taunted
her, insulted her and tried to break her
down by leading. or misleading, ques-
tiops. One of them said, Don't lie TO
US. We know everything, and If you tell
lies both you and Sir Leo viii suffer" I"
The airing given the case has made
Englishmen believe that they are op-
pressed by police methods which do not
differ materially from those of the Boil
shevist Tcheka, and they want some
thing done about it.
The whole trouble about the third
degree" is that such methods are too
often condoned and pardoned when
they lead TO the extraction of a confess
sion from known and despised GRIM
inai. The means justify the end. II the
end means the conviction Of an enemy
Of society. The shock comes when In
nocent persons fall into the net and
suffer what might be only the just due
Of criminals. One does not argue
against the necessity OF long and close
questioning by police Of suspicious char
acterg But one becomes highly in
dignant when the police question the
wrong person. Secrecy and star-chamber
proceedings by the police are almost
essential to proper police work. But II
they were abolished their frequent abuse
would be impossible.
Probably the only logical solution Of
the difficulty Is public demand for in
teiligent and legal procedure on the part
Of the police. But unless the demand IL
accompanied by strict determination
to punish, quickly and unerringiy. the
policeman who blunders the demand
viii get nowhere II more funds were
available for adequate police training
and II the highly specialized require
ments Of good policeman received
proper emphasis, there would be less
complaint over police methods.
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