20 OCTOBER 1961, Page 13

Treatment or Punishment Richard Milner, Sir Geoffrey Haworth

Demonstrators: New Style Laurens Otter Intrusion Monica Furhing August the Thirteenth Dr. Murdo Mackenzie

Trafalgar Square Jane Buxton

Down the 'C' Stream M. J R. Miller, J. J. Pearce The Centurions Correlli Bartlett Paperbacks Lova: Dickson Help Hungary Fund V M. Teleki and C. Berks.

Image of my Father John Connell

Bench and Bar •

L. J. Blom-Cooper and R. L. McEwen 625 or 405? P. F. Carter-Ruck Excursion into Americana Marie de Lepervanche The Unmarried Mother J. A. D. Kennedy TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT SIR,—John Sylvester's ease for penal reform would have carried more weight had he not allowed personal prejudice to. be confused with analytical judgment.

1. 'Half of them [the "adequate” criminals] were institutionalised at a comparatively early age—some for such things as stealing apples or taking-and- driving-away, offences for which individuals from a higher social background would never have been brought to court'. This latter generalisation is pure supposition, not proven and probably incapable of

prokif. '• 2. 'Throughout the Western world there is a correlation between numbers of crimes committed per head of popidation and number of policemen Per head of population.' By itself a correlation proves nothing. It may be possible, for example, to establish a correlation between the incidence of juvenile delinquency and the consumption of salted peanuts, but no one, surely, would suggest that the two are necessarily connected?

Why, with such armoury of lethal points at his disposal, Mr. Sylvester chose also to fire off these two blanks I cannot imagine.

RICHARD MILNER

28 OA ford Gardens, Strawberry Ha Middlesex