§ MR. FIELDTo ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether the Government will consider the advisability of not appointing English naval and military officers without knowledge of the law to be resident magistrates in Ireland, but appoint duly qualified Irish lawyers in future.
(Answered by Mr. Atkinson.) The Government are not prepared to exclude officers of the Navy or Army from these appointments. Experience has shown the previous training of these gentlemen, including the hearing of and determining upon evidence at Courts-martial, to be a qualification for the position of resident magistrate, and some of the most efficient magistrates have been selected from those services.