Review: The Horrors of Cayenne
| Date | 01 October 1933 |
| Published date | 01 October 1933 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3300600421 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
506
THE
POLICE JOURNAL
reader.
It
does seem a pity, however, to embellish a ' plain
narrative'
with
flowery language about crystal greyness turning into a transparency of
shining air, and other similar grandiose expressions.
It
may be
that'
everyday
life'
at a South African Police Out-Station involves a romance of the
nature described,
but
it is difficult to seethe relevance of a young policeman's
search for his
parents;
on the other hand these features may have been
added to lend human interest to the theme.
In
so far as the book describes
the daily round of duty at an out-station it is quite interesting,
but
any
fascination it might have is swamped by extravagant phrases, misplaced sen-
timent, and unlikely situations.
The
make-up of the book, too, is aggravating,
as
out
of its 338 pages over 40 are completely blank while nearly 30 have
only the title of the succeeding chapter.
THE
HORRORS
OF
CAYENNE. By
KARL
BARTZ,
translated by
BEATRICE
MARSHALL.
(Constable.)
3S.
6d. nett.
THIS is a popular edition of a book published three years ago.
The
story is
a fierce indictment of the French penal system as practised at Devils Island,
St. Laurent, Royal Island and the convict settlement of Cayenne generally.
The
hero is a German who suffered a long sentence as the result of organizing
a revolt in the Foreign Legion at the outbreak of the war.
The
number of
times
that
the prisoner escapes and is recaptured become monotonous from
aliterary standpoint,
but
the incidents are vividly told.
The
horrors which
are revealed are, as might be expected from this type of book, of an appalling
nature. Indeed, as we have remarked on previous occasions, it is difficult
to understand how, if this indictment is justified, French popular opinion
has not interfered before now.
It
is easy enough to reply
that
the
truth
as
to conditions in Cayenne are carefully hushed up,
but
there are prisoners
who, like the hero of this book, return to freedom and who are therefore
able to spread the evidence of their ill-treatment. We have to confess a
certain scepticism, precisely because, if the facts were as black as they are
painted, it seems incredible that exposure could have been so long
avoided.
THE
POLICEWOMAN'S
HANDBOOK. By
MISS
ELEANOR
L.
HUTZEL,
Deputy Commissioner of the Detroit Police Department. (Columbia
University Press.) Price 2.00 dollars.
IN compiling this handbook, Miss Hutzel has done signal service.
In
the
words of her publishers, she ' has set the standards by which the work of
policewomen will be judged for years to come.'
The
Handbook is designed to be applicable to a number of states with
varying legal codes and with
problems-racial,
social, geographical-differing
in some instances as widely as those of separate countries within the Continent
of Europe. In order, therefore, to achieve her task, Miss Hutzel has kept to
broad outlines, and as a result, her work will be of use to a far wider public
than might otherwise have been the case. She would be the last to claim
that the basic principles which she indicates are the peculiar discovery of
the Detroit Women Police. Rather is it because those principles, gradually
being recognized in many lands as underlying sound modern police work,
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