A couple of days after the Ides of January, Boston will celebrate the first anniversary of a crime that is no nearer solution now than it was last winter. So far the $1,217,000 of Brink's haul has bought only three things: an open season on armored trucks, a few Hallowe'en mask robberies, and a noticeable decline of crime in Massachusetts. Robberies in the Boston area took a noticeable downward trend after January 17 last, when seen men "of medium height and weight," clad in navy pea jackets and wearing grotesque Hallowe'en masks, carried out the largest cash robbery in American history. The records of what the local newspapers like to call "Boston's crack Criminal Investigation Department" show very few major larcenies in Massachusetts in the last eleven months.

One reason for this decline is the close surveillance that police have kept over all ex-criminals in Boston and vicinity. According to reliable reports, several of the more carefully watched have asked high Washington officials to try and get the pressure taken off. America's chief racketeers have come to regard Boston as a dangerous area for "pulling a caper," or whatever they're calling it these days.

The investigation of the Brink's case itself seems to be running in circles. Only last week it was reported that local officials were very willing to talk about the case, hoping that publicity would stir up new leads. But large, ruddy police captain francis M. Tiernan leans back in his chair and says, "Of course we never talk about a crime under investigation. That's asinine, ain't it?"

The last officially-announced break in the case, almost two months ago, put the entire investigation back in the North Shore area. Police followed a minor lead concerning a summer resort home and unearthed the name of a person already in the official dossier of the case.

The only previous time that beach territory had interested detectives was a few days after the crime when Federal money bags were found in Peabody and Sangus. Police were probably thinking of the pea-jackets, or of the sailor knots used to tie two Brink's cashiers and three guards. They may have been thinking back 15 years to the second largest cash theft in history, when ten thugs with machine guns robbed an arptored car of $427,000 in Brooklya and escaped across Jamsica Bay in a high powered speed-boat. The money in that case was never recovered.

Although neither Tiernan, nor James F. Daly, Deputy Superintendent of Police, nor F.B.I. Bureau Chief Edward A. Soney will give out the slightest hint as to the progress of the case, they have switched their attention to different leads almost weekly. Descriptions of the getaway vehicle have varied from two cars to one truck. An attempt was made to link the robbery to everyone from a gang that robbed the Sturtevant plant in Readville, New York, to a prominent Boston bookie. Arrests have included a soldier in New York and a farmer in Stoughton.

Pea-jacketed, masked bandits turned up from Newton to Omaha. Brink's uniforms and burglar tools were seized in a raid by detectives in Cleveland. A dollar bill that was supposedly part of the identifiable $98,000 was seen by somebody in Salt Lake City. Dust samples from a North End truck were rushed to F.B.I. laboratories. A Brink's gun was found in back of a store in Somerville.

At one point the underworld contacted Tiernan and Daly and offered its help. Criminals were getting as tired of the investigation as the police were. Attorney General Francis E. Kelly even offered the extra reward of immunity to anyone who would talk.

Possibly the greatest difficulty the police have had to overcome is a lack of F.B.I. cooperation. Although this has been emphatically denied on several occasions, complaints have leaked out of headquarters that Federal agents have bene completely informed on police discoveries, but have kept their own information to themselves.

One of these days an odd lead may bring unexpected results. The real beauty of the crime is that three small Sheets of paper--the records of all the money stolen--were carefully removed from a notebook and carried away by the leader of the wealthy seven. At any rate, as long as the investigation goes on, racketeers will be watched, the criminal exodus from Boston will continue, and the city will remain "off limits" to the gangs of the nation. Perhaps this is worth a million.