Lt.-Colonel Sir Vivian Henderson, M.C., M.P.

The treatment of young offenders is vitally important for obvious reasons. Are these boys and girls in trouble going to grow up into men and women who can steer clear of it, or are they to get into trouble again?

Sir Vivian Henderson is to deal this evening with Home Office schools and Borstal. There are two very marked distinctions. The boys sent to the Home Office schools are aged from ten upwards, while those sent to Borstal are aged from sixteen to twenty-one; secondly, those at Home Office schools are not necessarily offenders, but very often boys offended against, who have been removed from bad homes and influences. They are at these industrial schools, learning a vocation, with no stigma attached to them.

Both kinds of school are run on public school lines; one house competes against another house; pride, and self-respect, and healthy rivalry are inculcated. Some most encouraging facts, as well as some discouraging ones, have been revealed by the Report of the Commissioner of Prisons for 1932, just published.

As an example of the good work that is being done by Borstal, the renovation of two closed prisons has been carried out by the lads of two institutions. They have been taken to work each Monday by road and brought back on Friday night. Under these novel conditions they have undertaken painting, carpentry, pointing, and so forth, with the greatest success and in good spirit.