qs. CG Whountie Chief be ee 7
R C MP 2ie Oe bie

SHARING of wives, and the de-
stroying of their people when they be-
came aged and unable to care for them-
selves are two ancient customs of
Canada’s Northern Eskimos that
have been practically abolished due
to “education” provided by the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.

These changes have only taken
place in recent years, said Alan T.
Belcher, assistant commissioner for
the R.C.M.P. in British Columbia,
who recently spoke to the Gyro Club
at the Empress Hotel.

Another Eskimo custom—that of
killing practically all female babies
—has also been erased as a result of
the R.C.M.P.’s presence in the North-
land, the speaker added.

Serves in Arctic
Seven of his many years’ service
with the R.C.M.P. were spent in the
Arctic, and Mr. Belcher is fully quali-
fied to speak on the natives of that
area.
“I have seen a number of the spe-

cially built snow houses in which aged
Eskimos were placed and left to freeze
or starve to death,” he explained.

He liked the time spent in the
North. “There we were away from
officialdom and red tape and
the Eskimos are a wonderful people
to work with. Their simple way of
life cannot be found anywhere else.”

As far as the R.C.M.P. itself is
concerned, Mr. Belcher feels that
the organization—along with other
police agencies—is becoming too
mechanized.

He doesn’t like the idea, feeling
that everything went along fine in
the days of “foot sloggers.”

To members of the service club
he made it clear he was opposed to
too great a mechanizing of the police
force, but in almost the same breath
remarked that the R.C.M.P. today had
“two of the finest laboratories to be
found anywhere,” its own aircraft,
specialists and trained dogs.

Eight members of the force this

year are going to universities to get
their law degrees.

This was a good thing, he claimed,
but then he remarked: “My advice
to any young man entering the
R.C.M.P. is that he forget about
becoming a_ specialist in the
specialist field there is little chance
for advancement, and very little
future.”

“Stay in the field that’s my
advice to the man who enters our
service.”

It is unfortunate, and unfair, that
it is the specialists and experts who
get all the glory, rather than the
hard-working field men who work
for great lengths of time gathering
evidence which results in a police
case being brought to the fore, he
remarked.

“The large majority of the men
now in the force (there are about
5,000 now) are not specialists,” he
added. * *

Recruiting Policy Explained

BRASS BUTTON FANCIERS
DISCOURAGED BY R.C.M.P.

YOUNG MEN who fancy them-
selves in uniform and like the idea of
bossing other people, don’t get far in
the police forces of today.

At least, not in the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police.

Describing personnel selection
methods of the R.C.M.P., Superin-
tendent C. W. Harvison tells of a
would-be recruit who had confessed
that he had “always wanted to have a
row of brass buttons and lord it over
everybody.

The force wasn’t interested in
helping the young man to achieve his
ambitions.

“That sort of thing just doesn’t go
any more,” remarked the superin-
tendent.

Cites Motto

Discussing administration and work
of the force, Superintendent Harvison

Page Ninety

points out that the motto of the
R.C.M.PY was not “We Always Get
Our Man” but “To Maintain the
Right.”

Individual R.C.M.P. officers shared
the dislike of other Canadian citizens
for the things they associate with the
term “state police,” he says.

Summarizing _ statistically _ police
work in Canada in 1949, Superin-
tendent Harvison said the R.C.M.P.
had secured a total of 29,401 convic-
tions under the Criminal Code dur-
ing the year; 36,000 convictions under
Provincial statutes; 19,320 under Fed-
eral statutes and had provided assist-
ance to other departments on 141,338
occasions.

At its present strength of approxi-
mately 4,000, the force was about
400 under strength and was looking
for recruits, he said,

In addition to the regular force,
there are about 1,000 special con-
stables engaged in various types of
work.

Touching briefly on _ subjects
studied by police constables, including
criminal law, Superintendent Harvi-
son recalled the predicament of a
young Saskatchewan recruit.

Satisfied that a certain man was
guilty of stealing a rowboat, the
constable leafed through his Criminal
Code in search of a charge.

He found sections dealing with
theft of trees, horses, cattle and
“everything but rowboats.”

Finally, he found what he thought
would do and charged his man with
piracy on the high seas.

“We had quite a time getting out
from that one,” said the superin-

tendent. * *

Pinkest faces of the season blos-
somed out at Jonesville, Va., where a
prisoner broke out of jail and drove
away in the auto of the common-
wealth’s attorney.

THE SHOULDER STRAP