The Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Police has been sitting
throughout the week, and a good deal of evidence has been taken bearing on the methods of the police in dealing with disorder in the streets, and on their alleged suscepti- bility to bribery. For the present we need only concern ourselves with the admissions made by Sir Edward Henry, the Chief Commissioner of Police. In reply to Mr. Rufus Isaacs, he stated that he considered the reports made by the officers in the case of Dr. Gerothwohl and Mr. Lavalette were unsatisfactory, and that the omission of the fact of their having protested excluded an important factor which ought to have been there. In reply to further questions, the Chief Commissioner gave it as his opinion that the unsatisfactory nature of these reports was largely due to the fact that, as a rule, the education of a policeman was so defective that he was likely to omit what was of material importance. This frank admission that illiteracy is the rule amongst the police will come as an unpleasant surprise to the public, and is not likely to be lost on the investigating Com- missioners.
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