FIELD PUNISHMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 9 February 1917, Page 3

FIELD PUNISHMENT.

SOLDIER COLLAPSES AND DIES UNDERGOING SENTENCE.

General Childs, Director of Personal Services at the War; Office, has made a statement with regard to the ease of a soldier who died after undergoing what is known as Field Punishment No. 1. This has also been described as '' Crucifixion.'' "The soldier concerned," he says, "with eleven other men, were sentenced to one day's Field Punishment No. 1. On the morning on which he was sentenced he was medically inspected by the medical officer of the battalion, who certified him as fit to undergo the punishment. "The field punishment consisted of fatigues from 1.45 pm. till 4.40, and the men were employed in digging a hole for the disposal of rubbish. "From 4.40 until 6 they were doing nothing. They were then confined, under tiie rules laid down for field punishments, for half an hour—and here it should be noted that the maximum period allowed is two hours. (In a written reply to a question in the House of Commons on the subject by il'r Outhwaite, Mr. 11. W. Forster stated: "They were employed during most of the afternoon in digging a hole for a rubbish dump, and for half an hour during the afternoon were tied to. a fixed object"). "Subsequently to this the soldier concerned, while on the march, asked leave of the provost-sergeant to fall out, as he did not feel well.

"The provost-sergeant himself took the man to the medical inspection room, where lie was placed on a stretcher and made as comfortable as possible. He complained of acute pains below the right lung and difficulty in breathing. He shortly afterwards collapsed and died. THE PUNISHMENT DESCRIBED. '' A post- in ort e m cxaminat io n wa s held the next day, at which a lieut.-col. a major, and two captains and an expert bacteriologist were present. "They investigated every organ, of his body, and, apart from a slight trace or. fatty disease of the heart, there was no other evidence to the naked -eye of the cause of death, and, in the words of the finding of the post mortem, 'the only supposition is that an acute attack of dilatation of the heart supervened.' "I maintain that this soldier's punishment was carried out with every precaution, and that no effort was spared in his treatment." Speaking of the punishment itself General Childs says: "Field Punishment No. 1 does .not necessarily mean being tied up at all. If you have other work to do you wouldn't tie a man up; you would get him busy with fatigues. "It is conceivable that some people might abuse the rules laid down, in the spirit and not in the letter. But I resent that word 'crucifixion.' It met one officer to whom I have spoken who has ever seen it carried out except by one hand only. One of my A.G.'s told me that one hand only was ever tied."