16 SEPTEMBER 1955, Page 8

IT IS BUT rarely that I find myself in whole-hearted

agreement with the Daily Sketch these days, but its editor deserves to be congratulated on his campaign on behalf of the small boys convicted of taking apples from a derelict garden. Had the boys robbed a bank, the wheels of the law could not have ground more small. All the paraphernalia, including a Black Maria, were employed. The boys were not even given first offenders' benefit; they are now, therefore, crimirials. It was too much to expect that the present Home Secretary could be moved to sympathy in a case of this kind, but the matter could profitably be brought up again if a Cabinet reshuffle brings relief.

* * *