One comes now to the final chapter. A man is not sent to gaol to eat, sleep, and ponder, but to' work, whether he likes it or no. Tt has been argued that more work, and more profitable work, could done by the Ward Road convicts, bat facts do not support this contention, either on local evidence oF that of the great prisons of other countries. To begin with, convict labour is the slowest imaginable, because it is forced, and in the reumstances it is' the natural: instinct to slnck, as much as possible when a wafder's attention is diverted—for a half-hour if, possible, for a minute, or only a half-minute, if no greater respite can be obtained. Unless one resorted to the lash, as in centuries gone by, and which is unthinkable in modern times, how else could a man be kept constantly at his task?
In Shanghai particularly, it is suggested convict labour should be employed on the roads. Obviously a chain-gang (which is the only feasible system) could not be employed in the populous districts. There remain the extreme suburban roads. To put a gang to work there, one is told, would mean transporting them in'motor lorries (for the day would be lost if they marched), which would take the better part of an hour each way, a strong force of guards would have to be sent with them, and food also would have to be sent out.
Such labour would searcely be profitable.
Thus it seems that the only possible type of work is what is being done now within the gaol, and that is little more profitable, but. the best is made of it. The competition of convict labour in any case is extremely unpopular, and, beyond that, it is very difficult to put convict labour on a competitive basis, firstly, because of the difculty' already mentioned of keeping: the men steadily at their tasks and ensuring that their work is properly done, and, secondly, because the overhead charges necessarily are greater than in ordinary industry.
Not A Cent Wasted So one is reduced further to a mere statement of what is done at. Ward Road and an endeavour to Justify it, for it deserves justifica-Yien, "If" the members of the Economy Commission have not yet been to the gaol to sce what reductions in expense they can make there, they need not go, for they could not save a copper cent. Ward Road Gaol is a chip of Aberdeen, save as regards what the officers in charge do with what is their own. They take one through what! they call workshops, but which mostly appear to be converted storerooms, passages, eta, and there they show "one the' nearest thing to miracles. They have a carpenter's shop, a blacksmith's shop, a tailor's shop, a printing and book-binding ' offic, and a mat-making shop. One of the first exhibits in the blacksmith's shop was the remains of an ancient. printing press from the "North-China Daily News," converted for other uses, in the printing office was a Singer treadle sewing-machine tyrnod into a punching ap-[paratus, and in every room there was cither coiners' orforgers' confiscated apparatus transformed for other. uses, and it may have been that the gentlemen one saw printing motor car licences. or stamping buttons had previously manufactured "snide" dollars and bank-notes on the self-same machines!
As there seemed to be no one charge beyond the stolid Indian warders stationed in all the corners. and at the iron-barred doors, one turned again to the veteran head-gaoler, to ask:—"But who. tinkers with all-these machines and teaches the prisoners their work?" "Oh, we all take a hand in it now and again," replied Mr, Sims. Evident-all the handy-men are not the British Navy. Thirty years in a newspaper office does not give a man the experience necessary to get, motorcar licences off a Singer. sewing-machine. The training as an officer in a gaol is evidently much Detter.
Two instances will suffice to show the economy practised in- the gaol workshops." Not a sliver of bamboo goes to the incinerators until it is too small for a toothpick, Bundles of seemingly useless splinters are passed over to a group in one corner and with deft fingers they convert them into brooms far more serviceable than the whisk sith which the average, houseboy adds more dirt to one's establishment and which he wears out—according to the monthly bills—at the rate of about six a day, The Aberdonian Touch In the tailor's shop, the Aber-danian touch is still more noticeable. A very few there are who can be seen at work on what apparently is new material, The greater number are pulling old uniforms to pieces, sorting out the still "serviceable pieces, however small, and passing them on to others who work them into new suits. Even "the clippings from these are still not finished with, for they ko on to the shoe-makers to supplement 'a weird collection of cuttings from motor car covers, odd scraps of leather, and, indeed, anything which has something like wearing qualities. "Every scrap of clothing used in the gaol is made by the convicts themselves and not one of them, unless he be of the "swell mobsman" order, but is more comfortably clothed than he would be in outside life. What is left from what the shoe-maker uses of what the tailor has discarded can still be of service, for it goes on to the mop-makers, and it must be xno more than dust which eventually goes out of the workshops, The great thought when passing through the workshops was that never had one seen so many Chi If only the habit would stay with them, one would say that a short term of imprisonment would be one of the greatest benefits, for there would be a tremendous slump in the country's disease: and mortality figures, More Workshops Needed At is the workshop space which at present is most exercising the minds of the prison officials. With their system and their rigid rules a3 to cleanliness and: orderliness they mahd use of every possible inch for working space and put 50 men where an ordinary Chinese workshop could only find room for 20, but such conditions obviously are dangerous, It is many years since there was anything approaching an epidemic in the gaol, but the consequences would be dis-trous should one occur. A. half-hour spent in the hospital showed how greatly the chances are reduced. Two foreign doctors and tone Chinese, assisted by three hig able convict orderlies, all able put a big batch of new arrivals through an examination in comparison with which that imposed by the War Office for foreign service was as nothing. There was nothing formal about it, but a really searching examination, and medical supervision is maintained unceasingly.
As already indicated, the officials and the Municipal Council are keenly alive to the necessity for extensions to the gaol, the main part of which was built nearly 30 years ago, and negotiations are well advanced for the acquisition of land for the purpose. However, one can hardly: make a tour of the place without coming away convinced that. the outstanding need 4x not for more cell accommodation, but fo: workshops, and the greatest credit is due to'Capt. Wahl and all his staff for having accomplished 0 much with what they have at hand. Of course, the greatest reform would be a' redaction of the prison-75, and to that end the Nationalist government might be far more helpful than it has been. It is a sad but necessary thing to have to insist that things at the gaol would not be what they are if properly considered death sentences were carried out, and if the "cat" were an ever-present menace to those who would commit crimes of violence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.