Interview With Warren

LONDON, Nov. 13. - [New York Herald Cable- Special to THE BEE.] - Sir Charles Warren has copied Lord Sackville and in consequence shares his fate. John Murray invited the commissioner to use his pen. He produced an article on the police, defending himself. The matter came up in parliament. His superior, the home secretary, grabbed him, saying that Sir Charles was ignorant of a rule in the department that no attache should write of his office without permission. This was tantamount to stating that Sir Charles was inattentive, so he resigned. He and Lord Sackville will therefore soon meet and compare notes.
I called upon him last evening in consequence. Sir Charles is a handsome, military man, looking little over forty and considerably browned. He wears a moustache suggestive of silence, and his features are regular and handsome. In place of the military martinet which he is represented to be in some quarters, I found a gentleman, courteous in manner, amiable of disposition, with much dignity. His manner had more the suavity of a diplomat than the rough and ready style of a military man.
Can you give the Herald any details about your announced resignation, Sir Charles?
"Well, not much." he replied. "You must understand that until the government has appointed some one in my place I can say nothing. However, there is one thing I wish to be understood. That is that Mr. Matthews is speaking for government, but he is not doing so for me. I, the commissioner, will, when the time comes, have my say. At present I am still commissioner and responsible for the London police, therefore I may not speak yet."
"Can you suggest the reason of your resignation?"
"Not fully. But I will say that a great grievance has been the interference of the home office in the police department."
"Is that of recent date?"
"No. It has been so for two years. The police department had by law been originally placed under control of the chief secretary of state. The charge was next made over to the home secretary. However, this did not make us a department of the home office. I have resisted this latter assumption throughout. When it came to orders being written to us by the home office clerks it was a little too much."
"Were you not consulted?"
"Not directly. A curious feature of the whole business was that the government, represented by Mr. Matthews, held me personally responsible for all the crime of London, and yet they made some communications to my subordinate. It was First Assistant Commissioner Munro, now it is Mr. Anderson."
"Is there any trouble with the police?"
"No; that is all nonsense. No feeling such as has been represented exists. I think you will find that the metropolitan police are more contented now than they have been for years."
"You did not resign on account of the last Whitechapel murder?"
Sir Charles adjusted his glasses and smiled. He resumed emphatically: "No. I sent in my resignation before the Kelly murder, on the 8th of this month, immediately after Mr. Matthews' statement in the house of commons in reference to my article in Murray's Magazine. The resignation was accepted yesterday. That article was perfectly innocuous and could not do any harm."
"But the Munro case?"
"Well, if Mr. Munro, who has special charge of the detectives, says he resigned on account of a difference of opinion with me, this is the first I knew of it."
"Have you any information about the Whitechapel murder?"
"No. We are following up the slight clues all the time. We have received about four hundred letters. Every single idea was investigated. For example, we were asked to drag a canal at a certain spot. We did so, but there was nothing to be found. People talk as if nothing had been done. As for the Malay story, it cannot hold. We have had the water police on the alert from the first. Then, we have followed up the idea of the murderous cook, and every slaughter-house is under watch for a murderous butcher. In fact, every clue has been closely followed up. There are some clues and ideas which occupy our attention, but which it would be impolitic to foreshadow to the public."

Source: The Omaha Daily Bee, Omaha, Wednesday Morning, November 14, 1888