24 JANUARY 1964, Page 8

Reform in Delaware The Governor of Delaware. I see, is

trying to stop a public whipping being carried out in his state next week. He takes comfort from the fact that 'the times have long since passed when we whipped people as they did in the nineteenth century in the British Navy,' by which he means, I take it, that people who are publicly whipped in Delaware seldom die from the experience. But he still feels that It is time that Delaware moved ahead and abandoned this type of punishment,' though whether his reforming zeal is going to take the form of outright abolition or merely of bringing the whipping-post inside prison walls is not clear. I hope not the latter. Public whip- ping (or hanging) is surely better than private: the deterrent effects are presumably enhanced.