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The Royal Commission Appendix 2

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[[../../people/peN_P/oconnorPinsp.html|APPENDIX 2 letters re Insp O’Connor]]

To the Honorable the Chief Secretary Chief Commissioner of Police.

Police Department, Chief Commissioner's Office,

Melbourne , 5th July 1880 .

SIR,

Ever since the publication, in October 1878, of what is known as the Mansfield murders, remarks have been made in the public papers and elsewhere, in which reflections have been thrown upon the character of the police force and its proceedings generally in connection with the search for the outlaws, and now that the gang has been destroyed these remarks have taken a more specific and definite character. It is asserted and implied that the long-continued efforts of the police force to trace and capture the outlaws have been characterised by supineness and apathy; that the police have been in many cases influenced by a desire to avoid rather than meet the offenders, while in connection with the recent outbreak, which led to the destruction of the gang, it is asserted that I have been guilty of most culpable procrastination; that the police officers have shown a want of generalship, and the conduct of the members of the force has been, according to some, characterised by an inconceivable disregard of human life, and, according to others, by an absence of that courage and dash which every good constable should possess. I have long felt the injustice of these reflections, and I think the time has now arrived when I can properly ask to have it ascertained whether they are deserved or not.

I have, therefore, the honor to request that an inquiry may be instituted by the Government into the whole proceedings and management of the police force, from the perpetration of the murders to the present date. This inquiry may take any form Government may consider desirable. On that point I am quite indifferent, provided only—

(1) that the inquiry may be full and impartial, and open to receive the evidence of all persons, whether members of the force or not, who may have information on the subject to communicate; and

(2) that the proceedings should not be open to the press, for though the full details of what the police have been doing should be known to the Government, it would be obviously contrary to public policy that they should be published for general information. The report of the gentlemen making the inquiry should, I think, be all that should find its way into the hands of the public. It could of course be made sufficiently full to satisfy the reasonable expectations of any persons unconnected with the force.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

F. C. STANDISH,

__________

To the Honorable the Chief Secretary of Victoria Assistant Commissioner of Police.

Police Department, Chief Commissioner's Office,

Melbourne , 30th June 1880 .

SIR,

I have the honor respectfully to request that, before proceeding to acknowledge the services of those engaged in the destruction of the Kelly gang of outlaws, a searching inquiry be held into the whole circumstances and transactions of the police administration in the North-Eastern district since the Kelly outbreak in October 1878, and particularly into the circumstances of my recent withdrawal from that district.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

C. H. NICOLSON,

__________

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