20 OCTOBER 1961, Page 13

Sht,----In his excellent article on 'Treatment or Punishment' in the

Spectator of October 13, Mr. John Sylvester writes: 'Who is going to determine the method of treatment/punishment? The magis- trates (i.e., the police), the judges, the prison authori- ties, the administrators?'

I have been a magistrate since 1937, but I never remember the police asking for a particular punish- ment or suggesting a method of treatment for an offender whom we have convicted. Surely that is not their function. What has Mr. Sylvester in mind?

A. G. HAWORTH The Red Brook, Lower Peover, Knuisford, Cheshire