§ MR. MOONEY (Newry)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the fact that during the year 1905 there were 295 indictable crimes known to the police to have been committed in the county borough of York, and whether, in connection with these crimes, only 171 persons were apprehended; whether he can state if this class of crime is diminishing in this district; whether he can state the cause of the failure of the police to secure these of lenders; and whether he intends to take any stops to enable the police to bring to trial a larger percentage of the offenders.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe figures are correctly quoted, but the great majority of the so-called "crimes" are small larcenies disposed of summarily by the justices. There are many cases where the owner of the stolen property declines to prosecute, and many cases where several offences are committed by the same person; so that, if the police force is efficient and the returns are correctly 770 made, the number of persons prosecuted must always be considerably less than the number of offences committed. In York, the proportion is about the same as in England and Wales generally. There is no marked increase or decrease of crime in York.