There are, too, undoubted indications that' the goings and comings of all visitors to hotels who may show themselves to be in possession of valuables are very carefully watched, and robberies of their effects are subsequently planned, either at the railway stations, or even as was done last week by cutting off the luggage which may be strapped at the back of a motor-car, held up in a block of street trafic.
This type of crime needs a good deal more ingenuity than ordinary robbery, but it is carried out with no paraphernalia and with very much less risk of detection, in view of the general disposition to suppose that people of similar social standing to oneself must necessarily be honest and reputable. About Christmas time such crimes are specially flourishing, since many are off their guard, and there is w good deal of promiscuous entertainment.
The police of course are more or less powerless in the matter, and they by no maams hear of all the robberies. It is indeed a sinister comment on current dishonesty that the insurance companies will not quote any rate covering thefts from business offices, and if matters continue as they are now, the insurance of valuables will become almost impossible, save at prohibitive figures, Visitors from abroad are naturally the easiest victims, but habitual familiarity with town life is making even Londoners indifferent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.