§ MR. E. R. RUSSELL (Glasgow, Bridgeton)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, What will be the relation of General Sir Redvers Buller to the General commanding Her Majesty's Forces in Ireland; whether General Buller will have authority to direct and control the movements of the Military in his district without the intervention of the Commander in Chief; and, whether he will have powers to try and sentence persons charged as well as to pursue offenders?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)I think the hon. Member is under some misapprehension as to the nature of Sir Redvers Buller's appointment. Sir Redvers Buller will hold a civil appointment in the counties of Kerry and Clare. As holder of that appointment, it will be his duty to superintend any general 565 operations whenever the military maybe called in to assist the civil power, and it will be his duty to regulate such operations. But he will not hold a military appointment at all, and he does not go to Kerry to establish martial law, as some hon. Members have suggested, nor even to strain the civil law. He is to act under the powers of the law, with a view to the organization of the arrangements for the restoration of order, and the detection and punishment of crime in Kerry and Clare. Sir Redvers Buller, like other persons holding the appointment of Divisional Magistrate under the Crown, will not act judicially in Petty Sessions.