this country, but for the growth of public interest and zeal in the development of this particular branch of social work, to which the recent change of methods bears witness. During recent years, the work of Aid Societies has been extended to the assistance of the wives and families of men undergoing imprisonment, and the steps taken will insure that, in future, no deserving case will be overlooked, and the suffering that has been endured by hundreds of innocent women and children will become a thing of the past. Various agencies have rendered assistance in making the necessary inquiries, chief among them being the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Church Army, and the Charity Organization Society. Owing to the War, no general effect has yet been given to the powers taken by Section 7 of the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914, to subsidise a society for the care and control of persons under the age of 21, being either on Probation, or placed out on licence from a Borstal Institution or Reformatory or Industrial School, or under supervision within the meaning of Section 1 (3) of the same Act (vide page 82). As President of the newly-constituted Central Committee of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies, I recently took the opportunity of appealing for the establishment of a National Society for the Prevention of Crime and for the Protection of the Young Offender. All these categories of young persons named are now being attended to by different Agencies or persons, the same agent often acting for different classes, though not under the same authority. Such a National Society, though not interfering with liberty of action of each, would co-ordinate the whole, and such exchange of voluntary service might be of the greatest benefit, and would provide the rallying point for all forces, both secular and religious, now occupied in the task of rehabilitating those who have fallen under the ban of the criminal law. So far, I have dealt only with "Patronage," as applied to Convict and Local Prisons. There are two other categories of prisoners who are dealt with on discharge in a different way, _i.e._, those discharged under the Prevention of Crime Act, 1908 (_a_) from Borstal Institutions (referred to in a former chapter): (_b_) from Preventive Detention.