§ MR. CHARLES HOBHOUSE (Bristol, E.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether the offences for which twenty-six soldiers, during the year 1903, were sentenced to imprisonment in Devizes Goal were of a civil or military character; and whether it would be possible, in the latter case, that imprisonment for such offences should be carried out in a military prison.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) Of the twenty-six soldiers committed to Devizes Civil Prison during 1903, twenty were convicted of offences of an ordinary criminal character which necessitated their serving their sentences in a civil prison, four of the remainder wore convicted of offences of a military character prior to the 31st February when the new regulations came into force. Under those regulations such prisoners would now be committed to a military prison. The remaining two prisoners were committed to Devizes Prison in error, and, on the error being discovered, they were transferred to a military prison.