Branch Activities
| Date | 01 November 1946 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455054600500609 |
| Published date | 01 November 1946 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
80
BRANCH ACTIVITIES
BERKS., BUCKS. AND OXON BRANCH
With a Conference Committee viewing the weather
with bated breath, Friday, October 4th, &dquo;dawned bright&dquo;,
if a trifle overcast, and Wadham College, Oxford, (&dquo; go
down Catte Street, pass the King’s Arms and you’re
there &dquo;), prepared to welcome seventy visitors to a Week-
end Conference with &dquo;Looking Forward&dquo; as its theme.
And so-visitors &dquo; came up &dquo; to Oxford and after the
usual (in this case unusual) period of settling down and
of becoming used to a bedroom and sitting room (no
extra charge) with nice cold water in jug and basin, not
to mention a nice hot wash after crossing the &dquo; quad &dquo;,
the party settled down, amid seventeenth century
surroundings and sixteenth century (or earlier) ablutive
arrangements, to enjoy themselves.
(What excelleht
food and what appetites!).
The Branch Chairman opened the proceedings with a
prayer that &dquo; God would direct our consultations to the
extension of His Kingdom and send us to our homes and
work more fitted to bear His tasks.&dquo; Mr. W. O. Hart, Esq.,
By courtesy of &dquo;The Oxford Mail&dquo;
B.C.L., J.P., Fellovv of Wadha,m, welcoming the conference,
After-care was likely to extend and to become more
said there were inherent inconsistencies in the whole
important.
There was great scope for deciding on the
theory of punishment, inconsistencies between the
treatment to be provided for those who come from the
deterrent and the reformatory aspect, and there was
approved school or Borstal..
great difficulty in maintaining a proper balance between
Some areas were trying as an experiment the segrega-
them.
There was inadequacy and inflexibility in the
tion of matrimonial work, but that had to be approached
punishments that were available. There seemed to be so
with great care. He thought a stage would be reached
few when any award of punishment was to take place,
where young probation officers would begin to specialise
and they were so unsatisfactory. That was one of the
too soon. Personally, he would like to see a free inter-
aspects where the whole question of probation was of
change of one type of work with another.
such importance and value. It gave a degree of flexibility
Mr. S. C. F. Farmer, National Chairman N.A.P.O., and
where it was of considerable value, and was a forerunner
Principal Probation Officer, Berks., acted as Chairman.
of further developments.
With an expectant audience before him, Dr. David
&dquo; Ultimately we may reach a solution by which the
Mace, Secretary of the National Marriage Guidance
question of guilt or innocence may be determined as a
Council,, gave the conference &dquo;full measure&dquo; on Saturday
judicial award and the question of appropriate punish-
morning, having Mrs. E. Crosfield, J.P., Vice-Chairman
ment may well pass to administrative procedure,&dquo; he said.
Bucks. Probation Committee as Chairman.
Speaking at the opening of the conference on Friday,
Dr. Mace developed his theme from a broad basis-&dquo; I
Mr. J. Ross, of the Probation Division of the Home Office,
would say that, next to preventing a third world war,
said he thought the Probation Service required most
the major task which confronts human society is to make
thought, in the immediate future, to the technique of
the family life stable and secure.
matrimonial conciliation.
&dquo; If we could envisage a certainty of 100 years of
&dquo;The importance of the family as a unit cannot be
unbroken peace, I am certain in my own mind that the
over-emphasised. We have gone a long way, but there
greatest task of human society to-day is to make family
is still a considerable distance to go in matrimonial con-
life healthy, sound and wholesome. The breakdown of
ciliation and in the deeper problems that affect the family
the family with which we are confronted to-day is one
as a unit,&dquo; he said.
of the most serious issues with which we have to deal.
They had, he continued, to consider the time when the
To attribute this situation solely to the condition and
Probation Service would become a fully-developed
circumstances of the war is to take a very inadequate
science.
view of what is happening. The problem of the disinte-
&dquo; I am not suggesting that the probation office should
grated home goes much deeper than this, and there is
become a specialist,&dquo; he added.
&dquo;His tasks are too
not a country in the world which is not confronted with
manifold for that, and I am convinced that the personal
this problem. I believe the beginnings of the problem
qualities will endure.&dquo;
of family disruption, which has reached its peak to-day,
Looking forward, he felt sure that probation had public
goes back 150 years.&dquo;
opinion behind it. The things that had been done had
Among the other arresting points, Dr. Mace gave us
won the general confidence.
these-&dquo; There are four things we have to do. The first
Since 1936 a great many people had been trained; they
is to deal with these social and economic hindrances to
now had about 800 full-time offices in England and
sound family life.
The second is we must set up an
Wales, and about a third of them were ex-trainees. They
adequate remedial agency, as soon as possible, to deal
hoped for a considerable development in the Probation
with difficult marriages in...
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