31 DECEMBER 1921, Page 3

In an interview last Saturday Mr. Shortt, the Home Secretary,

replied to the criticisms of the Borstal institutions. He said that the worst charge was really a charge of cruelty made against the officers. Many of the men employed had been ordinary prison warders, but there were in every institution enough men trained in .Borstal treatment in addition to the Governor, medical officer and tutors, some of whom were always en the spot to prevent any ill-treatment. Of course, there had been some individual cases of a man losing his temper, but there had certainly been no -sort of cruelty. .All the threats of suioide, except perhaps in the ease of the boy Buckingham, had been, in his gpinian, pure mischief.