90 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

on to the Home Office any work which did not clearly belong
to another Department.

i. Keeping the Peace. The chief instrument for keeping the
peace is the Police Force. Each county, and each of the larger
towns maintains its own force, but there is no local activity over
which the control of the Central Government is greater. The
numbers and pay of the Police and the appointment of the -
Chief Constable of each local force must have the Home Secretary's
approval; and the regulations of all Police Forces must conform
to a pattern laid down by the Home Office. The Metropolitan
Police Force, which has power over the London County Council
area (except the City of London), and over Greater London,
is directly under the Hpme Secretary's control. For this purpose
'there is attached to the Home Office a Metropolitan Police
Commission in the charge of a Chief Commissioner. An Act
passed in 1933 was intended to attract men from Universities
into the higher ranks of the Metropolitan Police, and to raise
the educational level of the police by the opening of the Metro-
politan Police College at Hendon. It was argued that the tasks
of the police are now so many that a good education, as well
as commonsense and experience, is necessary; also that the police,
like the Civil Service, ought to take advantage of the fact that
our educational system does produce a number of highly trained
people. The same criticism, however, may be made of this plan
as of Civil Service recruitment: at present, a preference for men
firom the older Universities means a preference for a certain
social class. If most of the higher Metropolitan Police ranks are
recruited in this way, it will mean that they are separated in
outlook both from the men they command and the public whom
they are intended to serve. In no, department of Government
is this more dangerous than in those, like the Police Force and
Armed Forces, which control the liberties of the people. Further,
the Police, unlike the Armed Forces, are in constant touch with
the public; they tell them to "move on"; they stop disturbances;