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CORRESPONDENCE

GERMANY'S OPPORTUNITY

To the Editor of THE NATIONAL REVIEW

SIR, If there is one thing which the present Government professed on taking office, it was economy. If there is one thing upon which they displayed economy during the first three years of office, it was the Navy.

What will their economy cost this country?

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Until the end of 1905, when the present Government came into office Germany-whatever her ideals may have been-had never taken the actual, steps to place herself in the position of building a navy which would challenge or surpass ours. Relying on sentiments expressed by members of the present Government at the General Election, and the result of such election, Germany realised that here was her one opportunity. She grasped the fact that the first step was not the laying down of more Dreadnoughts" (that would soon have been known and so set the pace to correspondingly increase in this country), but to extend manufacturing plant, not only for building ships, but what was far more important, for producing vast quantities of guns and heavy armament quickly, so that with such new plant (far larger and more up-to-date than all we possess in this country)—with a five or six months' secret start—her published programme can at any time be anticipated and battleships completed long before others could be made in this country in reply.

Ministers have stated how during the first three years of office endeavours were made to arrange some reduction of armament; such negotiations would probably have been effective if Germany had known that meantime the same steps were being taken here (as at that time were being taken by her) to provide a corresponding increase of productive power.

The Board of Admiralty were warned from the first what was taking place in Germany, but ignored the information until last March, when Krupp's vast extensions were practically completed and the knowledge became public.

To safeguard our productive power would not have been without precedent; when our means of producing armour-plate fell below our possible requirements, Mr Goschen wisely arranged for the plant in this country to be largely increased, and it is still ahead of any requirements which have yet arisen.

Even if the extra plant were never required, the cost would not have been much more than one "Dreadnought," and the cost of many "Dreadnoughts," and the enormous cost of their annual maintenance, would have been saved.

The game was merely one of bluff, in which the present Government or the present Board of Admiralty were completely hoodwinked, and this at a time when the British public were advised to sleep while the Admiralty watched.

In addition to this neglect of armaments, the Cawdor programme was abandoned; naturally Germany realised that here was a still further opportunity to level up, and extra battleships were laid down in that country. That mistake is also now admitted, and extra ships are being built hurriedly to rectify the

error.

Whether Germany would not have agreed to a reduction of armament at the beginning of 1906, had England shown she was alert, cannot now be proved; but certainly a great proportion of the vast difference between the value of Germany's naval assets then and to-day is what the unfortunate mistakes of our Government and our Admiralty have cost this country. It is a figure representing this difference, with a proportionate addition for the preponderance we have always claimed, which will have to be borne in future years, provided England's former naval supremacy is retained.

Yours faithfully,

H. H. MULLINER.

ARE PRISONERS PAMPERED?

To the Editor of THE NATIONAL Review

SIR,-In the July number of this magazine there appeared an article on "the Pampering of Prisoners" by "One of the pampered." The writer, it appears, had had the misfortune to be sent to prison for a month, and on the strength of this experience thought himself fully qualified to speak with authority on prison treatment and discipline. So might a Cook's tourist, with a seven days' ticket to Venice, undertake to give us a "History of Italy." "One of the pampered" fails utterly to understand that what is supportable for a "month" and is scarcely noticed as a hardship, becomes in the course of "years" scarcely endurable and frequently causes men's minds to give way. This is the "depri vation of the right of speech," or in other words, the "silent system," a matter which calls more urgently for immediate reform than any other measure at present adopted in English prisons, and to which "One of the pampered" never even alludes. All that seems to impress him is that the food is wholesome, the cells airy and well ventilated, the prisoners well clad, whilst many deserving people "outside" have less to eat, are not so warmly clothed, and have frequently to go without a bed, and so looking at these facts he arrives at the conclusion that prisoners are far too well treated generally, and that we make far too much fuss about them. But this criticism is very superficial and false, as I trust to be able to show, and I hope that after eighteen years' service in H. M. Prisons, as warder and deputy-governor, I am qualified to speak.

In these enlightened days most people will admit that "punishment" which

does not help to reform is worse than useless, and that those forms of punishment which experience shows to have nothing but a hardening effect upon the criminal should be abolished. The object of punishment is twofold: to chastise and reform the offender, and to act as a deterrent upon others. What we have to ask ourselves is, Does the system by which we deal with criminals to-day have this effect upon them? The answer is a most uncompromising "no," and it is not because they are "pampered" that our system fails, but on the contrary it does not accomplish its desired end because of its "brutalising" influence. If "One of the pampered " thinks that criminals are not punished sufficiently let him try the "closed cell" and "silent system" for ten or twelve years instead of a month and he'll soon alter his opinion. Besides to any man, law-breaker or otherwise, the loss of liberty and personal freedom cannot be atoned for by thick clothing and well-ventilated corridors. This is the only punishment necessary, and whilst it is being undergone we should try and reform the wrongdoer and lift him up. At present we are satisfied with mere segregation. We remove the criminal from our midst, and think there is nothing else to be done. How he is treated during the term of his incarceration, whether he improves morally or not, no one seems to care, but this I do say that the "closed cell" confinement and the "enforced silence" system is the refinement of cruelty, that its effects on the mind are most deleterious, that it drives hundreds of men insane, that it is completely demoralising, utterly cruel, and quite unworthy of a civilised nation of the twentieth century.

It is notorious that prison tends to make prisoners less fit to earn an honest livelihood, or, in the words of the last Annual Report of the Borstal Association, "tends to produce fitness for nothing but further terms of imprisonment."

The Report of the Departmental Committee on Prisons, 1895, of which Mr. Herbert Gladstone was chairman, explains how it is. It quotes Sir Godfrey Lushington as follows: "I regard as unfavourable to reformation the status of a prisoner throughout his whole career; the crushing of self-respect, the starving of all moral instinct he may possess, the absence of all opportunity to do or receive a kindness, the continual association with none but criminals, and that only as a separate item amongst other items also separate; the forced labour, and the denial of all liberty. I believe the true mode of reforming a man or restoring him to society is exactly in the opposite direction of all these; but, of course, this is a mere idea. It is quite impracticable in a prison. In fact, the unfavourable features I have mentioned are inseparable from prison life.”

And the Committee adds: "As a broad description of prison life, we think this description is accurate; we do not agree that all of these unfavourable features are irremovable."

But the features still persist, and the cold shoulder of Society confirms and intensifies the evil effects of the prisons, the fact being that reformative treatment is only in its infancy anywhere, and is hardly yet born in this country.

Imagine what it means to be forbidden to exchange a word with even a fellow prisoner, to be denied the right to exercise the faculty of speech, to be condemned to perpetual silence for years at a time, to be forbidden, under dire penalties, to give expression to the most harmless and simple thought. It is a positive torture; to some men, I believe, physical punishment would be welcome

in preference. Not only this, but it is the chief cause of insanity. So well is this known to prison doctors that at Parkhurst Convict Prison, in the Isle of Wight, prisoners who show a tendency to weakmindedness are placed in a special wing by the orders of Dr. Treadwell, the medical officer, and are permitted to converse with each other whilst at work. Capt. Conor, the Governor, too, is always averse to punishing a convict for talking, because he well knows that it is practically impossible for a man to remain with sealed lips for years at a time. Parkhurst, though, is an invalid station and all men are not so broad-minded and humane as the Governor and medical officer of that establishment, and the silent system is still in vogue throughout the British Isles.

Shut off from all intercourse with his fellow man, from the sight or influence of women and children, from all refining influences, the least item of news sedulously kept from his knowledge, brutally punished if he breaks the slightest prison rule, the prisoner gradually becomes cowed and filled with a dull hatred of all his fellow men, and I am convinced from my long experience that being denied "speech" is the chief factor which makes for a man's rapid deterioration. Then, too, if a man is to take his place again in the world, or strive to, what earthly good does it do to forbid newspapers, and to allow him to fall seven, ten, twelve years behind the times as regards science, art, literature, commerce, and politics? When the time comes for him to be liberated he is nearly a fool and feels himself such, as many scores have told me.

I do not wish criminals to be pampered, but I do think that more rational methods should obtain than are at present in vogue. No man is utterly worthless, there are few men who are in prison as the direct result of an evil will; bad environment, force of circumstances often, ignorance and weakness, these are the main factors which cause men to fall under the criminal laws. Statistics bear me out in this, and Scotland Yard knows that the number of real professional malefactors is comparatively very small. This being so then, when a man is sent to prison, it should be our aim to reclaim him, to educate him, to lift him up, to teach him his social duties, to try and inculcate a feeling of self-respect, and we shall most certainly not do this by means of "unnatural methods" of punishment. The great thing is to show the criminal that we wish to act justly towards him, and that we don't imprison him solely as an act of revenge in order to wreak our vengeance on him, as is at present his idea, and a small matter for surprise it is that he thinks so.

All reforms must begin internally to effect any lasting change or benefit, and we shall never reach any man's heart, except to harden it, by means of the "closed cell" and "silent system." These are matters which call for drastic reforms. It is time we cultivated a wider sympathy, and when a man has made a mistake, or erred through weakness, or wickedness if you will, we should try and give him a helping hand and not stamp him deeper in the mire. The worse he sins, the more he stands in need of aid, and it is of no use to keep preaching Christianity to him on Sundays, whilst we only practise cruelty all the year round.

I remain, yours &c,

EX-DEPUTY-GOVERNOR,

THE

NATIONAL REVIEW

No. 321. NOVEMBER 1909

EPISODES OF THE MONTH

The Impending Crisis

It is universally recognised that the impending crisis—of which the first stage should be decided before the end of November, when the issue will be fairly and squarely raised by the action of the House of Lords, as to whether the British people shall govern themselves or shall be governed by the Demagogues-will involve the most pregnant political struggle in which Englishmen have been engaged since 1832. It completely absorbs the energies of statesmen and politicians of all Parties, and is being watched with breathless interest throughout the civilised world-by sympathetic eyes in every Dominion of the British Empire, as also in friendly foreign quarters, such as Japan and France, by all the enlightened elements in Russia, and by many other communities, who recognise that their own interests are bound up with the maintenance of a strong England, who remains one of the bulwarks of the world's peace, not through any superior virtue, as many Englishmen like to imagine, but simply because as an Empire that has, so to speak, "arrived," our interests are identical with those of other Powers who stand to lose more than they could hope to gain by war, just as we are at odds with Empires "on the make," whose appetites threaten their neighbours. Our coming "civil war" will be watched with equal interest, but with very different feelings, by rival Powers, whose rulers

VOL. LIV

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