§ MR. H. D. GREENE (Shrewsbury)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he can state in how many cases of courts-martial held in South Africa and in England respectively during the past year the findings have been reversed or altered upon the advice of the Judge Advocate General or other authority on legal grounds, and in how many instances of reversal or alteration of convictions the sentences or parts of them have been undergone by the prisoner convicted before reversal or 820 alteration; also in how many cases of lawful convictions the sentences of courts-martial have been wholly or in part remitted or their severity mitigated by the proper authority; and whether a report or return of the administration of military law and the proceedings of the Judge Advocate General's department is annually furnished to His Majesty or to any and which of His Ministers, or whether the department of the Judge Advocate General and the proceedings therein are left without any report or return being accessible to Parliament or the public.
§ MR. BRODRICKIn ninety-eight cases of courts-martial held in South Africa and in England the findings have been wholly or partially reversed on the initiative or the advice of the Judge Advocate General. It should be understood that the reversal would in such cases be due to the want of sufficient legal evidence, and not to doubt of the prisoner's guilt. No men are put on trial unless there is a strong prima facie case. In some cases the prisoner has undergone a part or the whole of the sentence. The number of cases of lawful convictions when the sentence has been wholly or partially remitted or commuted for various reasons by the confirming officer amounted to 3,584. These cases of mitigation of sentence are due to the fact that severe punishments are necessary before the enemy, but the Commander-in-Chief at home, when the object of the sentence has been obtained, often materially reduces the punishment awarded. There is no annual report made by the Judge Advocate General's Office, but all statistics connected with that office are published annually in the Annual Return of the British Army.
§ MR. H. D. GREENEIn how many cases did the reversal take place after the man had undergone all or part of the imprisonment?
§ MR. BRODRICKI cannot give the exact number.