Regeneration Part 19

By Loans

" Trade Headquarters Fund 27,902 16 5

" Sundry Colonial and Foreign Territories 8,606 16 0 ------------

34,506 12 5

" Sundry Debtors 18,360 10 4

" Cash at Bank 2,107 7 4

--------------- 1,357,706 11 5

We have examined the above Statement with the Books, Accounts, and Vouchers relating thereto, and certify the same to be correct. We have also verified the Bank balances and Investments.

KNOX, CROPPER & CO.,

_Chartered Accountants._

16 FINSBURY CIRCUS, E.C.

_December_ 31, 1909.

APPENDIX D

A FEW FIGURES SHOWING SOME OF THE WORK OF THE DARKEST ENGLAND SCHEME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1909 DURING TOTAL TO 1910 SEPT. 30, 1910 Number of Meals supplied at Cheap Food Depots 69,784,480 6,869,897 76,654,377 Number of Cheap Lodgings for the Homeless 27,850,674 2,445,300 30,295,974 Number of Meetings held in Shelters 140,747 8,660 149,407 Number of Applications from Unemployed registered at Labour Bureaux 302,538 13,009 315,547 Number received into Factories 63,694 6,754 70,448 Number for whom Employment (temporary or permanent) has been found 249,453 20,210 269,663 Number of Ex-Criminals received into Homes 8,840 416 9,256 Number of Ex-Criminals a.s.sisted, restored to Friends, sent to situations, etc. 7,886 1,166 9,052 Number of Applications for Lost Persons 44,001 2,120 46,121 Number of Lost Persons found 13,710 398 14,108 Number of Women and Girls received into Rescue Homes 44,417 3,679 48,096 Number of Women and Girls received into Rescue Homes who were sent to Situations, restored to Friends, etc. 37,168 3,346 40,514 Number of Families visited in Slums 998,079 109,750 1,107,829 Number of Families prayed with 577,550 64,141 641,691 Number of Public-houses visited 630,021 33,188 663,209 Number of Lodging-houses visited 17,330 3,457 20,787 Number of Lodging-house Meetings held 7,319 1,792 9,111 Number of Sick People visited and nursed 93,233 21,912 115,145

NOTES:

[1: See Appendix C]

[2: The following extract from the recently issued 'Report of the Commissioners of Prisons and the Directors of Convict Prisons,'

for the year ended March 31, 1910, Part I [Cd. 5360], published since the above was written, sets out the present views of the Authorities on this important matter:--

'Out of the present inmates of convict prisons over 40 per cent have been previously in penal servitude, viz. out of 3,046 male convicts in convict prisons, 1,253 had been previously sentenced to penal servitude, 672 once, 271 twice, 196 three times, and 114 four times or more. Mr.

Secretary Churchill has referred to us the question whether, and in what way, it would be possible to make any impression on this roll of recidivism--this unyielding _corpus_ of habitual crime. The problem is never absent from the minds of those responsible for the administration of prisons and the treatment of crime, and during recent years great efforts have been made to improve the machinery of a.s.sistance on discharge, fully impressed as we are with the truth of the old French saying, "_Le difficile ce n'est pas emprisoner un homme, c'est de le relacher_." We have tried to avail ourselves fully of the resources offered by such powerful agencies as the Church Army, Salvation Army, as well as other societies who have for years operated in this particular field of charitable effort. We recognize the ready help given by all these agencies. No doubt by their efforts many difficult and unpromising cases have been rehabilitated; but after full consideration we have come to the opinion that the task of rehabilitation in the case of men returning to freedom after a sentence of penal servitude is too difficult and too costly to be left entirely to voluntary societies, unaided by any grant of public funds, and working independently of each other at a problem where unity of method and direction is above all things required.

Mr. Secretary Churchill, to whom these views have been represented, at once agreed that the difficulty lay in this question of discharge, and that the official authority, acting in close and friendly co-operation with the voluntary societies must take a more active part than hitherto in controlling the pa.s.sage into free life of a man emerging from penal servitude. ... A plan is now under consideration for establishing a Central Agency of Control for Discharged Convicts, on which both the official and unofficial element will be represented, with a subsidy from public funds, the purpose of which will be to take in hand the guidance and direction of every convict on the day of discharge' (pp. 15, 16).]

[3: See Parliamentary Blue Book [Cd. 2562].]

[4: The scale of pay in the Salvation Array for Officers in charge of Corps (or Stations) is as follows:--For Single Men: Lieutenants, 16s.

weekly; Captains, 18s. weekly. For Single Women: Lieutenants, 12s.

weekly; Captains, 15s. weekly. For Married Men, 27s. per week and 1s.

per week for each child under 7 years of age, and 2s. per week for each child between the ages of 7 and 14. Furnished lodgings are provided in addition.]

[5: But the day before this proof came into my hands it was my duty to help to try a case ill.u.s.trative of these remarks. In that case a girl when only just over the age of sixteen had been seduced by a young man and borne a son. First the father admitted parentage and promised marriage. Then he denied parentage, and, apparently without a shadow of evidence, alleged that the child was the result of an incestuous intercourse between its mother and a relative. At the trial, having, it seemed, come to the conclusion that this wicked slander would not enable him to escape an affiliation order, he again frankly admitted his parentage. In the country districts, at any rate, such examples are common.--H. R. H.]

[6: The loss is being reduced annually, that for the financial year which has just closed being the lowest on record.]

[7: See Appendix A]

[8: On this and other points see the Salvation Army's 'Articles of War,' Appendix B.]