The Policemen's Union Lord Trenchard, whole report is more fully
discussed . on a later page, is likely to find he has stirred up consider- able trouble by his criticisms of the Police Federation. It is no doubt true that a good deal that appears in the official literature of the Federation is biassed and one- sided, and that no sufficient opportunity exists of correct.. ing the impression it may create. The questions of the posting up in police offices-of notices to which objection can reasonably be taken, and of the amount of official time taken up by Federation meetings, are separate issues, on which the Commissioner may quite well be right. But if something like a trade union is to be permitted in the police force at all—and Parliament has definitely decided that it is—then the ordinary procedure of trade unions must be accepted. The police force is a civilian body and its members are not to be subjected to restric- tions acknowledged as reasonable in the case of the fight- ing services. From the trade union point of view the comparison is rather with a body like the Post Office, and the postal unions are particularly vigorous organizations. That special difficulties may arise in the case of the police can easily be understood, but unless the situation is a good deal more serious than the report suggests the Commis. sioner seems to be making unnecessary trouble for him- self just when he needs general support for his larger reforms. And if his idea of recruiting the police from a different class makes headway the Federation difficulty may largely solve itself.
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