British Ship Adoption Society

the power to order flogging", and many interesting points were raised from the platform and the floor. Mr. Jeffs, proposing, in a quiet and carefully-prepared speech, showed how the conclusion of the Cadogan Committee to abolish flogging had been reached at a time when crimes of violence were at a low ebb, whereas the actual abolition had been introduced when crime was at its worst level. Crimes had, moreover, increased in brutality, and the reintroduction of flogging was absolutely necessary.

D. G. Hilton, opposing, in his best speech so far, declared that to resort to flogging was only to admit inability to deal properly with a criminal. The aim of punishment was to reach the root causes of the crime, and thus to reform the criminal. The prison system was designed to discipline a man's character. Referring to the Cadogan Report, he said that it proved that flogging was not an effective deterrent.

P. W. V. Milburn, seconding the proposition, in a maiden speech, expressed doubt as to whether a criminal comes out of prison a better man.

M. I. H. Unwin, seconding the opposition, pointed out that we should not aim to avenge but to deter. It was our duty to prevent crimes from occurring.

Among the many points of interest made from the floor, it was stated that a criminal was a bully and a coward, and would therefore be deterred by the fear of corporal punishment, and on the other hand that no man was by nature a criminal, but was only so because of his environment, and that a return to the use of flogging would be an undesirable and retrograde step. One or two speakers favoured a combination of the two methods of punishment.

The motion was carried by 23 votes to 8.

P.J.R.M'

It is almost exactly a year since the "Mountpark" left Great Britain on her present voyage, and apart from the outward passage via the Persian 'Gulf to Australia, she has been engaged ever since in carrying wheat and flour from Australia to India. We recollect that before the War our previous adopted ship, the "Holmpark", occasionally loaded wheat at Karachi for Western Europe, and no doubt the change reflects the growth of India's population in the last ten years, turning the country on balance from a wheat exporting to a wheat importing area. It would be interesting to know the ultimate destination of the wheat discharged by the "Mountpark" at Madras, Vizagapatan, Calcutta and Bombay, all of which are in rice consuming areas.