DEATH SENTENCE IN ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3442, 23 March 1920, Page 7

DEATH SENTENCE IN ARMY.

ONLY 11 PER CENT. NOT COM-

MUTED.

The quesiion of a -court of appeal ,to review death sentences passed by courts-martial [on active service. was examined by :1 Parliamentary com.mit;tee which recently investigated the whole‘subject of courts-martial in

the British Army. A majority of the commiitee recommended that su_ch provision for appeal was not necessary. “During the recent war,” its report states, “not single officer

or soldie" was executed under sentence of court-martial in the United Kingdom. Abroad :1 -certain number

of death sentences were carried out.

in each case they were only carried wouot. after persona] consideration by, and upon‘ the orders of, the comman-

Ader-in-chief, and after the Judge- ’ Advocate-General or his deputy had advised upon their legality. . . . . . . As showing the care with which all considerations were weighed and the desire to show mercy whenever the interest_,- of the army as :1 whole, and

of the nation, permitted, it may be stated thaf 1110 fewer than 89 per cen'h of the death sentences pronounced were commuted by the commander-in-chief. VVO doubt very much whether any court, necessarily not posqessing fhe information which he possessed as so the discipline and nioral of the army, would have ven-

tured ‘to exercise clemency to any such extent”. Quoting the dictum of the great Duke of Wellington for soldiers who strike or fire at oflicers or non-commissioned officers, the committee declared that a commander-in-ehief must not be fettered in a de--cision which so vitally afi'ects the discipline of his army. “The essence of military punishments is that they «should be exemplary and speedy,” In a minority report three members of_the committefi" reemriznon(le«l that -tE.’p___Qeat.h penal7y "should not be -aw:l§‘(lab]e for as many offences as at present: and “wit there =.houl<l. be 3. fight. of appeal in death :~'entenee.< to the Court of Criminal Appeal.”