MANY PEOPLE THINK that since the last execution in this
country (August, 1955) there has been a considerable increase in the number of murders committed. This erroneous belief is largely due, I think, to the way in which murders have been reported in the press over the last few months. For instance, unless 1 am much mistaken, it used to be rare for The Times to report a murder on its main news page : but since the introduction of the Silverman Bill to abolish capital punishment it has frequently done so. On the day the Com- mons passed the Abolition Bill it reported on its main news page that three men had been charged with murder, and on the day the Bill came before the Lords it reported at the top of the same page that two men had been charged with separate murders. It has also, of course, taken a strong pro-hanging line in its leading articles, but one would not expect that to influence its reporting of the facts. On October 29 the Secretary of State for Scotland gave the number of murders known to the police per month during the previous five years. The Times did not publish the figures. On October 31 the Home Secretary gave the equiva- lent figures for England and Wales. The Times did not publish them. On November 12 the Chair- man of the National Campaign for Abolition, Mr. Gerald Gardiner, QC, sent a short letter to The Times containing the figures. The Times did not publish the letter. Since then Mr. Gardiner has written twice more to The Times, asking it to publish the figures. It has not done so. Here they are:
September to September (inclusive)200 1951-1952 1952-1953 .• • 217 1953-1954 191 1954-1955 203 1955-1956 .. 182
What I find most surprising about all this is that The Tunes should think it so important to sup- press these figures. Although they are remarkably interesting they prove nothing at all. But perhaps The Times does not believe them.
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