ARMOURED CARS FOR BANKS.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. MONTREAL, THURSDAY.

The larger Canadian banks are adopting the system of armoured motor-cars for the transportation of large sums of money through city streets following the recent murderous highway robbery at Montreal, by which it is now ascertained the robbers secured $140,000 of bank funds. The Bank of Montreal, it is stated to-day, has for some time past used armoured motor-cars equipped with bullet-proof windows, special protection for chauffeurs, and a locked steel money chamber, with armed guards, when transporting large sums of money. Hence its freedom from attack. A similar system is being adopted by other banks owing to the increasing number of attacks on, and robberies of, bank conveyances in the past six months. The increase in such crimes of violence in Canada, generally committed by notorious criminals with records both in the Canadian and American criminal courts, is causing grave apprehension in business circles, and it is felt that sharp action is needed to correct the evil. The Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, at its meeting yesterday, complained that the growing evil was largely due to the ease with which notorious criminals, when arrested by the Canadian police, obtained bail, which they promptly broke, and fled to the United States to continue their career of crime there. It was shown that the bandit killed in Tuesday’s affair at Montreal was recently arrested by the Montreal police, that bail was immediately furnished, and he went to the United States, later returning to join the gang of bank robbers, among whom he met his death. The Montreal police have already arrested four persons believed to have been implicated in Tuesday’s robbery, they being caught counting stolen funds, but two, who are believed to be the ringleaders of the gang, have not yet been caught. A move is being discussed in the Canadian Senate to amend the criminal code and make attempts at robbery with arms, accompanied by violence, a capital offence, in order to cope with the wave of such crime alarming the Dominion at present.