The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-25
SCOTLAND YARD ARCH NEMESIS
 OF CRIMINALS
British Police Disregard Natures Hardships in
 Pursuit of Evil-dOer
BY ARTHUR F. DEGREvE

BY ARTHUR F. DEGREVE United Press Staff Correspondent)
 London, (UP)-In an atmosphere of bombings, robberies and riots, Scotland Yard, relentless, nemesis of criminals, was born here 53 years ago.
 Since then it's stern, determined agents have penetrated jungles where death turks at every step; braved the scorching heat of desert wastes and the dangers of the worlds many underworlds to bring to the gallows or to prison, criminals who broke the laws of the British Empire.
 Scotland Yard may not always get its man, as the famous Can- adian Mounted Police boast of, but one who kills under the Brit ish flag has only the most slender chance of escapin gthe moose. It may not be this year, in five years but the yard" never sleeps and, criminals say. never forgets. The powerful agency was a faith of a few far-seeing Britons kept it alive.
 Even to-day. despite the respect in which it is held all over the world, the "Yard". Is populyar target of critics and press. If a few members of an American police force are found guilty of ,irregulari- ties they are dismissed and everyone is satisfied.
 Not so, however, with Scotland Yard. Any. serious mistake made on a murder case or any irregulari- ties in the force of 300 men that make up this famous body becomes to the press "another Scotland Yard scandal" and editorials that the faith of the people in the police has been severely shaken, appear immediate ly.
 This it was that one of the finest detectives employed here in 1888 was dismissed from the force flor carrying concealment and de- ceit into the intercourse of pri- vate life" because of his activities in the National Political Union of the working classes. A committee of the House of Commons immedi- ately ordered that any activities by plain-clothes men outside of those to detect and prevent law violations "were most abhorrent to the feeling of the people and most alient to the spirit of the constitution"
 Also there was considerable dis content and distrust in the uni- formed ranks where 1t was feared the detectives would be used as spies. The unrest was not aided by the fact that the pay of the plain clothes man was higher than that of his colleague in uni- form.
 These and other difficulties were surmounted, however, and the man. ner in which the new body of police justified their existence Is revealed in figures showing that arrests rose in number from 13,128 in 1879 to 17,522 in 1883. There began. a slump in the number of brutal mur- ders and crimes and other serious natures, which, however, was only temporary.
 It was in the nineties that the Ward" laid the foundation of the enviable reputation 1t holds to-day. This, observers believe, was due to the greatly augmented force pre- cipitated by the revolting Jack the Ripper" murders, in 1888, in London's East-End. Women were slashed to death in a cruel manner while walking down dimly lighted streets.
 All the skill of the sleuths failed to result in the fiend's capture and high officials of Scotland Yard now maintain he was a maniac and died by his own hand.