THE AGENT-PROVOCATEUR
SIR,—Sir Harry Stephen's comments on agents-provocateurs are most timely. It has always been a mystery to me why people who provoke others to crime—whether felony, misdemeanour or simple police contra- vention—are not prosecuted. It is the duty of chief constable.s in z'll districts to prosecute in such cases. Private prosecutions (unknown in Continental countries) should be abolished, as they are and must be, by their nature, malicious. Agents-provocateurs are not permitted or tolerated on thz Continent,in the case of ordinary felonies, misdemeanours or police contraventions. If they are used at all, it is only in the case of very grave crimes, such as high treason or espionage. The famous Dreyfus case of 1898 in France may have contained an element of provocation or faked evidence, although it was, in the main, a case of mistaken identity. To suggest, as some people do, that there would never be a conviction in this or that class of case if agents-provocateurs were not used, is not only begging the question, but perversion of the mind and mental aberration. The English people can never be con- sidered civilised until they stop fighting crime by illegal means. Nobody should be allowed to commit a crime, no matter what excuse may be given for committing it. Our law and procedure requires a thorough overhaul, and in particular the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854 (to a study of which I commend your lay readers) should be abolished. We should return to the Common Law, which is the only just and fair law.—Yours faithfully, G. W. R. Tnomsoti. 13 Kings Hall Road, Beckenham, Kent.
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