BOOKS
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1953.tb00984.x |
| Date | 01 April 1953 |
| Published date | 01 April 1953 |
94
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
the
West African Court of Appeal where the value is not less than
£200
or
with leave.
(13) A new Native Court Bill to replace
the
present Native Courts Ordinance
should be drafted in conjunction with the other regional Commissions and
submitted for consideration by Government.
It
should be rearranged into
parts dealing separately with constitution, jurisdiction, officers of customary
courts, proceedings, ancillary powers, control of native courts, transfers,
appeals and miscellaneous.
BOOKS
SIR
CHARLES
JEFFRIES.
The Colonial Police. Max Parrish, 1952; 18s.
6d.;
pp.232.
The
avowed intention of the British Commonwealth is to lead the various units
that
go to make up
that
body, towards self government.
To
achieve a balanced
democratic government it is essential for the law enforcement agencies, i.e. the
police, to be entirely divorced from politics, and to enforce the law.
In
totalitarian countries it is equally essential
that
the police should obey the
dictates of the government in power. Only by rigid obedience from the police
can minority parties be prevented from arising and challenging the party in power.
Thus
the one public service
that
it is essential for a totalitarian party to control
absolutely is the police.
In
democratic countries today there are two main divisions into which police
organizations fall. In Great Britain, in some dominions, and in the U.S.A. the
police are organized on a local basis; in others, France, Holland and Belgium, to
quote a few,
the
police are organized on a nation-wide state basis. It is obviously
far easier to gain control of one state police service than it is to gain control of many
individual police forces organized on a local basis.
A locally organized police force therefore induces agreater political stability in
any country
than
does a state police.
This
fact is not always appreciated today, and is obviously of the greatest
importance in countries which are progressing from colonial status towards self
government.
In
the British colonies, police are entirely organized on a state basis, and their
task is to enforce a law which has been in essence imported from this country,
and has not been entirely of local colonial growth.
The
British police idea has been taken to the colonies through the Colonial
Police Service, and Sir Charles Jeffries in his book traces historically how
th,a
t
police idea based originally on the Metropolitan Police model has developed
III
the various colonies, and how the Metropolitan model has been forsaken for the
Royal Irish Constabulary model of a state force.
It
is perhaps a more practical
model,
but
one that carries an inherent danger as outlined above.
Sir Charles in his readable and popular style gives abridged histories of the many
colonial police forces, giving perhaps too full an account of some of the more
picturesque and remote forces than their importance warrants.
The
Falklan.
d
Islands is allotted more space than is Malaya and Singapore. But apart from
thIS
defect the book performs a most valuable service in drawing attention to the work
of the Colonial Police Service as a whole, and should prove an admirable
ｰｲ･ｬｕｾｩ
to a further and more detailed
study
of the problems that confront the Colonta
Police Service today.
The
section of the book devoted to the colonial policeman and his work giver
an account of
the
varying types of individuals and the many different kinds a
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