The Problem of the Armed Criminal in Singapore
| Author | R. H. Onaert |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300308 |
| Date | 01 July 1930 |
| Published date | 01 July 1930 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Problem
of
the Armed Criminal
in Singapore
By R. H.
ONAERT
Director,
C.LD.,
Straits Settlements
SIN GAPORE should be a policeman's
paradise-that
is if
he is looking for work and variety. Yet, contradictory
though it may sound, the incidence of crime, except by fits and
starts, is normal when compared with
that
of other towns in
the East.
The
work and variety are due to the collection of
races which, each with its own religion, customs and interests,
have made Singapore their home.
The
Singapore police is a semi-military
force;
the
uniformed members are armed with, and trained in the use of,
rifles and revolvers, while the detectives (plain clothes men)
are armed with revolvers only. Side by side with duties of a
semi-military character, the police carry on the duties of an
ordinary civil force.
It
is doubtful if any other town in the world counts
within its population so many nationalities.
There
are Chinese
from South China, from the several provinces and districts of
which are immigrants who are not only unable to understand
each other
but
are often inimical to each other.
There
are
similar differences and hostilities between members of the
various tribes and sects from Northern and Southern
India;
between the Javanese, Boyanese and other miscellaneous stock
from the hundred and one islands of the Netherlands East
Indies;
between the Tamils and Singhalese from Ceylon;
and between the Arabs from South Arabia. Add to this
already heterogeneous collection Malays, Japanese, Filipinos,
Koreans, Formosans, Europeans from every
par(of
Europe,
and a very large Eurasian population, and it is easy to imagine
Singapore as a town the policing of which would, even in
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