§ MR. LEA (St. Pancras, E.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will forbid any general court martial abroad during time of peace trying British soldiers for murder, and arrange that such cases shall be handed over to the civil authorities, as is the present custom in Great Britain.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) The Army Act provides that a soldier shall not be tried by court martial for murder in any place within His Majesty's dominions outside the United Kingdom, other than Gibraltar, unless such person at the time he committed the offence was on active service, or such place is more than 100 miles from any city or town where he could be tried by a competent civil court. I am not prepared to issue any instructions affecting the provisions of the Act in this respect.