THE TRAITOR MINOTT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 9 July 1917, Page 4

THE TRAITOR MINOTT.

TO BE COURT-MARTIALLED & "AFTER THE WAR." Mr. J. Vigor Brown, member for Napier, asked the Minister for Defences in the House last week jtfb.etb.er was prepared, in view of the fuller knowledge of the disastrous consequences to our soldiers that followed upon the traitorous desertion of Private Minott, to pu'olicly withdraw his former statement that Minott was an •honourable prisoner of war; and whethere he will cause the traitor Minott to be forthwith gazetted as a deserter?

To this Sir James Allen has replied: "It is presumed that the hon~ member refers to Private Nimot. Private Nimot was originally reported by cable to have deserted to the enemy. Shortly after he was officially reported by the American Embassy in Berlin to be a prisoner of war. Latest advices are that -he is still so held. A Court of Inquiry held in France in December of last year found that, in spite of the fact that he was a prisoner of war in Germany, it was considered that Nimot had deserted tothe enemy. No further action as regards gazetting is at present consid- , ered necessary. Nimot will be dulyf*\ tried by court-martial under the Army Act when recovered at the end of the war."