Unique Record Held by an Important Section of Shanghai Municipal Police: The Identification of Dead Men Four dead men identified in one month by their finger prints,. This is the unique record in the world's annals of crime, held by the finger print department of the Shanghai Municipal Police.
By permis Rarrett, Commissioner of "Polie"
C. and Capt. W. G. Clark: Director of Criminal Intelligence, S. M. C, a representative of the "North-China Daily News" on Monday permitted to inter very interesting personage in the Person of Detective Inspector G. Gilbert, in charge of the Finger-Print "Bureau of the Shanghsi Municipal Police.
'This branch, which does incalculpable work in the detection of crime in Shanghai principally and the East generally, is not universally known to' possess, records, the volume of which ranks with the largest, cities of the world. "It has in its archives some 200,000 specimens of finger prints, all tabulated and recorded, which instantly be referred to when Eas new specimen is forwarded to the bureau.
In this connection, it is. interesting to recall that' in Jul fan article appeared in the "Police Review," a journal published. in England, on the subject of the taking of finger-prints of deceared Persons.
Tt appears that at the inquest held on the body of a man, the! Home police brought out in evidence that as a result of the deceased's finger prints, certain facts had been established, Whereupon the Coroner congratulated the police and paid an eloquent tribute to the effcieney of the! fingerprint. department "of Scotland: Yard and tothe value the method of identification deceased persons, The Value of the Work As a result of press reports of the inquest, several letters appeared various newspapers commenting en the incident and recalling similar fwolated cases. The report of the guest and the subsequent corres pondence and research in regard hed Shanghat {into the" records, inger-print bureau inevitably followed. The result. was what' amazing. Tt showed that the system of taking finger prints of unidentified persons. who had mot their deaths by violence had been in operation in Shanghai since the establishment of the finger print bureau in 1010, "In several eases the identification" of the eceased had resulted in the prompt arrest of murderers, and" other {eases were recorded "in which the dentification of the deceased had materially assisted the police in their investigations and culminated the arrest of the perpetrators of Out of the number of cases narrated by Mr. Gilbert, the following stands out'in the writer's mind as Doing a remarkable feat. The body of a male Chinese had been recovered from the river in the Yangtzepoo district. 'The body was in a state of advanced decomposition but nevertheless, finger prints wore obtained, 'These' were circulated in the ordinary way to the French police and the latter were able to identify the man as having been concerned in a crime committed some time previously in Jcompany with two siccomplices whose finger prints were also recorded in the French bureau.
These two men were found and interrogated and other inquiries were instituted. The result was that it was established beyond a shadow of doubt that these two men had murdered the third and they were Subsequently sentenced to death. Thus the value of this uncontrovert able mode of detection can readily realised by the lay man,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.