§ SIR JOHN SWINBURNE (Staffordshire, Lichfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 461 whether his attention has been called to the case of' Richard Hinde, who was recently fined 40s. and costs, or in default seven days' hard labour, at Lichfield Petty Sessions, for being absent through inadvertence from the annual training of the 3rd Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment on 29th April; and whether lie will take into his consideration the desirability of remitting a portion of the sentence?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)The Justices inform me that the prisoner's defence was that he did not know to which regiment he belonged, the 3rd or the 4th Battalion; but inasmuch as he had served for several years in the Army, and had trained last year with the 3rd Battalion, the Justices deemed his excuse insufficient, and imposed the minimum penalty of 40s. In default of payment the prisoner was committed for the minimum term of seven days' imprisonment, which sentence expires to-day. It does not seem to mo to be a case calling for any interference on my part.