A.—2

18

Enclosure. (Circular.) Sir,— Downing Street, Bth July, 1903. As you are no doubt aware, the question of the best method for the identification of criminals has been for some considerable time under consideration in this country, and it has been finally decided to adopt the system which has been successfully employed in India, and which consists in taking impressions of the fingers of prisoners. 2. This system has already been introduced into the Transvaal, Lagos, Northern Nigeria, and I understand that its adoption is under consideration in several other colonies. Its success in India and elsewhere has been so considerable, and the advantages which it possesses over the anthropometric and other systems are considered to be so great, that I have no hesitation in inviting your attention to the question whether it might not be desirable to introduce the system in the prisons of the colony under your government. 3. The matter may already have come to your notice, and the book may be known to you ; but I have instructed the Crown Agents for the colonies to purchase and to send to you a copy of the leading treatise on the subject, " Classification and Uses of Finger-prints," by Mr. E. R. Henry, C.5.1., formerly of the Indian Civil Service, and now Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. This volume, though not a Government publication, was prepared for the use of the Government of India, and contains, I understand, all the information required for the sucessful working of the system. I have, <fee, J. CHAMBERLAIN. The Officer Administering the Government of

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