The Argus
24/ 4/1880
... part of the KellyGang story
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THE KELLY GANG TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS
Sir,-Before the practical abandonment of the search for the Kelly gang, I beg to offer a suggestion through your valuable columns ament their capture. Those who have read Roman history will call to mind a period during the consulship of Pompey and Crassus, when the waters of the Mediterranean were infested with Cilician pirates. So powerful had these bandits of the water become that corn supplies coming from Sicily and Africa were cut off by them, and with the scarcity of grain arose a panic among the Roman people. To remedy this Pompey was given the full command of the Mediterranean for a period of three years, and 120,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry (for he worked on land as well as on sea), and 500 galleys were placed at his disposal. Like a fine old Roman general that he was, Pompey worked with a definite plan. He divided the Mediterranean into 13 equal parts, appointing a squadron and commander to each, and within 40 days the sea was free of pirates, and the people made merry in Rome.
Now, if our worthy chief of police would do something of this kind?divide the Kelly district into a certain number of stations, say 20, appointing, we will say, four men to each, and thus enabling each band to learn its own particular district thoroughly, I am of opinion?sheltering myself under the celebrated Roman precedent?that ere long the bandits of Greta would be safely netted, even as rabbits in their native warren.
Thanking you, by anticipation, for the insertion of one more "proposal," I remain, &c.,
TITUS V. Fitzroy, April 23.
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