War Waifs

When civilization goes haywire through war or revolution, first to go savage are children. That Britain's children are no exception to this rule was made plain last week when Sir Alexander Maxwell, Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office, gave out the first report on juvenile delinquency in Britain since World War II began.

Sir Alexander's figures, covering only the first four months of 1940, showed a 50% increase in crimes committed by children under 18. Chief offenses: stealing, breaking into homes and shops.

That these early figures did not tell the whole story became all too clear when the city of Manchester, in Britain's industrial Midlands, reported on child delinquency for the entire year. Manchester suffered a juvenile crime wave that set an all-time record, up 77% over 1939. Of 1,323 children indicted on criminal charges, 797 were boys and girls of 14 or less. The rest ranged in age from 15 to 17.

In London last week juvenile courts were sitting double their pre-war hours to hear the stories sullen juniors told them. One curious fact they had unearthed: poverty does not, as in peacetime, lead to crime. On the charge sheet 20 boys were listed in a day, eight of them only 16 years old. All were earning salaries big enough to support a respectable family before the war. Scores of onetime errand boys were doing demolition work at -L-4/5 ($17) a week. They gave their mothers $6, squandered the rest on liquor, gambling, girls.

Principal cause of Britain's youthful crime wave was the relaxation of grown-up authority. Many a father had gone away to camp, or worked overtime in a war factory. At least half of London's compulsory grade schools had been destroyed by bombs, or converted to other uses. Parents had put their children to work (or taught them to beg) in order to bolster family earnings. With boys' clubs broken up by evacuation, social centres taken over for war work, high-spirited youngsters turned to crime out of sheer boredom.

Britain's Government and press racked their brains, wondered what to do with youthful criminals. Homes for delinquent children were overflowing, convicted moppets were being crowded in prisons with hardened felons. Britons rubbed their eyes and thought of Indiana's John Dillinger when one day last week five young desperadoes broke out of Borstal prison, piled into the Governor's car, and made off.

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