their subjects.

But the keeping of recidivist records is only one part of the business
of the Criminal Record Office. This is the department which is
responsible for keeping a watchful eye on those people the public love
to call "ticket-of-leave men," but who are officially known as
licence-holders or supervisees.

These are convicts who, through good conduct in prison, have been
released before the expiration of the full term of their sentence, or
persons ordered at the time of their conviction to undergo a period of
police supervision after they leave prison. This class is composed very
largely of an elusive gentry, and to keep track of their comings and
goings is no simple matter when they have reason to vanish for a season.

There are usually about a thousand of these in London; the exact number
in 1913 was 811. Strict regulations are laid down, which they must
observe for the protection of the community; but, in practice, they are
afforded every facility for earning an honest living.

Ever and anon the old myth recurs that "ticket-of-leave men" are hounded
and harassed by the police so that ultimately they are thrown back to
their old life in sheer despair.

Listen to what the "Police Code" says:

"It is of great importance to avoid giving licence-holders and
supervisees any ground for alleging that they are being interfered
with by the police, or in any way prevented from leading an honest
life. When it is necessary to make enquiries at their addresses or
places of business it is desirable, if possible, that they should
be made by officers in plain clothes who are not known in the
district, and great care should be taken that the nature of the
inquiry should not be disclosed to anyone other than the
licence-holder or supervisee himself."

That regulation is carried out with a rigid regard for both the spirit
and the letter.

The relations of the detective force with the men they watch are quite
friendly. It is a matter of policy that they should be so. Yet the
situation has its humours at times.

There is a fund maintained at the office from which many ex-convicts
have been provided with a fresh start in a straightforward career. No
inconvenient enquiries are made, and the bare word of the applicant is
often accepted--within limits, of course.

Does he want to sell flowers? A stock is provided. Is he a workman
needing tools? He is supplied. Another cann