Class I. Men sentenced for offences against morality and for
arson.
Class II. Men sentenced to Colony life as a sequel to a term of
imprisonment of less than one year.
Men whose past history shows them to be dangerous to the
community.
Class III. Habitual vagabonds, mendicants, inebriates, and men
generally unable to support themselves.
Class IV. Men under twenty-one years of age.
Class V. (_a_) The infirm and (_b_) the incurable.
Class VI. First offenders.
These come under the normal conditions of Colony life; that is to say,
they are obliged to do about nine hours work a day, of a character
suited to their capacity, in return for which they receive board and
lodging, and in addition, a small amount of pay.... This is partly
paid in tokens valid only at the Colony stores and canteen, and partly
it is banked against the time when the colonist leaves. The normal
day is as follows: the colonists rise at 4.30 (summer), and after
leaving the lavatory each man receives his ration of bread for the day
(1-1/2 lbs.) and as much coffee (chicory) as he likes. What bread is
not eaten then is kept for dinner and supper. At 6 they enter the
shops, where they remain until 11.30, with a half-hour interval from 8
to 8.30 a.m., when they can go outside and smoke. At 11.30 they are
all marched back to the quadrangle and go into the dining-halls in two
relays. After this they rest until 1.30, when they re-enter the shops
until 6, with another half-hour interval at 4 o’clock. On their return
supper is served, and immediately afterwards they go to bed, when the
roll-call is made, requiring every man to stand to his bed, and those
missing are noted.
In the winter the short day necessitates the farmhands retiring very
early to bed. Those who work in the shops begin their work at 7.30 in
the morning, and work on after dusk by artificial light.
The colonists are given no meat, but the soup of vegetables is very
good, and each man has a large quantity. They have a sweet drink made
of liquorice-wood boiled in water, with their meals; coffee and bread
for breakfast; potatoes or other vegetables, with a meat sauce for
supper; and chicory-water in large cans in their dormitories. To
supplement the above they can make purchases from the canteen of beer,
tobaccos, lard, herrings, etc., which are sold at exceedingly small
prices, representing only the actual cost price of the article when
produced by the Colony labour itself.
The staff is small, and consists of a Director-in-Chief at
Hoogstraeten, who exercises a general financial supervision over all
the Colonies, a Director at Wortel and Merxplas, and at the latter
place the following officers: Deputy-Directors, 2; Doctor, 1; Priests,
2; Teachers, 5; Clerks, 19; Manufacturing Manager, 1; Warders, 81;
Sisters of Mercy, 6.
All offences against the regulations of the Colony and all cases of
slack work are summarily dealt with by the Director, who has full
power to transfer men from one class to another, and from a more to a
less remunerative form of work. He can also award imprisonment or
solitary confinement, and bread and water diet in the Colony cells for
any period up to sixty days at a time. This power can also, in case of
necessity, be used repeatedly, so that a bad character can practically
be permanently locked up.
A further help to the maintenance of discipline is undoubtedly the
privilege of earning wages and of spending them directly on beer and
tobacco, etc.
There is one feature of Merxplas which is at first rather startling;
that is, that every day there are a certain number who escape. This
does not seem to give the authorities much concern, because they are
nearly always brought back again in a short time, either through
capture, or because their mode of living brings them again to the
notice of the police.
A beginning was once made of digging a moat round the grounds, but it
was abandoned because it was thought that the possibility of escape
helped to prevent disaffection. The colonists also, in the eyes of the
law, are patients rather than criminals. Those in Classes I. and II.
are, of course, much more closely guarded. Escape, like all other
breaches of Colony discipline, can be punished by the Director with
imprisonment in the Colony cells.
The results of the work done at the Colony is thus summed up in the
“Blue Book” from which the greater part of the detailed particulars
have been taken.
“Even more important than the economy of the system is its effect on
the colonists. The men at Merxplas have retained a large proportion of
whatever manual and technical skill they possessed when they first
began to slip out of employment in the outside world. They have
entered the Colony before the rapid deterioration, which is the
inevitable result of the tramp life, has had time to take effect, and
the opportunity afforded them to practise their trades has, in most
cases, prevented their ever sinking to the level of the average
English tramp. In every shop the keen interest the men take in their
work is most noticeable; only one foreman and one warder are employed
in each shop, and without coercion the men seemed all working with
remarkable energy and real interest. This is, in our opinion, perhaps
the most striking feature of the whole establishment.
“The permanent effect on the individual is less, perhaps, than one
would at first sight expect. About ninety per cent are habituals. The
reason given by all the authorities was always the same. Outside, this
class of man of weak moral fibre, and generally of inferior physique,
cannot keep from drink. Sooner or later he breaks down, loses his
place and returns. Inside, away from temptation, they work well, and
as long as the sentence does not exceed two or three years, seem
content to remain. The colonies, it must be remembered, do not claim
to deal largely with the temporarily unemployed, but with a class that
is more or less permanently inefficient. In this connection, however,
it seems that no attempt has been made to bring any strong religious
influence to bear. There are the usual masses and other observances
of the Roman Church, but there seems to be little personal mission
work undertaken.”