§ SIR JOHN HAYasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether there is any power or authority to try a prisoner of war for acts done before his capture by those who make him prisoner, unless detected as a spy and out of uniform; and, whether Mr. Shaw, now prisoner at large on board a French man of war at Tamatave, is a prisoner of war and accused of being a spy?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)Sir, I think the right hon. and gallant Gentleman is under some misapprehension as to the extent of the right of trial exercised by the military tribunals of an army occupying foreign territory for the purposes of war. Under such circumstances, the military tribunals of the occupying army claim jurisdiction to try the inhabitants of the country for any military offence—that is, an offence committed by them against the army itself. I do not think that it would be either convenient or expedient for me to attempt to define the offences which are of such a character as to justify the military tribunals in exercising their jurisdiction; but I certainly can say that such a power is not confined to the instance given by the right hon. and gallant Gentleman in the Question he has put to me.