§ SIR WALTEE BARTTELOTasked the Judge Advocate General, Whether his attention has been called to the case of Gunner Jures, who was tried and convicted by a district court-martial at St. Helena in August, 1874, and sentenced to be imprisoned for 168 days for making a complaint to the inspecting officer at his annual inspection without first having made his complaint to his commanding officer; whether such sentence was confirmed, and whether such a sentence was legal or illegal, and, if illegal, what steps have been taken in the matter?
§ MR. STEPHEN CAVEYes, Sir, my attention was directed to this case when the proceedings of the court-martial arrived in due course at the Judge Advocate General's Office in September last. The sentence had been confirmed by the officer commanding the troops at St. Helena. I considered it my duty at once to quash the whole proceedings as illegal, on the ground that neither the charge nor the evidence established a military offence. I also thought it right to call the attention of the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief to the case. His Royal Highness concurred in the view I had taken, and expressed to the military authorities in St. Helena his extreme displeasure at the course they had pursued, on the ground that every man has 1404 a right to state his complaint to the inspecting officer, and that to punish a man under such circumstances is certain to create an impression in the Army that soldiers have no redress when they feel themselves aggrieved.