51. Mr. LLEWELYN WILLIAMSasked the Prime Minister whether he has received a protest from eleven Nonconformist ministers at Abercynon, Glamorganshire, in reference to the treatment accorded to conscientious objectors detained in the detention barracks at Devizes, four of whom are from that neighbourhood; whether several of these conscientious objectors at Devizes have had recourse to hunger strike; whether it is the intention of the military authorities to break the spirits of these men in order to force them into the Army notwithstanding their conscientious objection to bearing arms; and, if not, whether the Government will alter the system so as to give the genuine conscientious objector fair play and freedom from petty tyranny?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Tennant)My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has asked me to answer this question. I have no information at present on these matters, but I can see no ground for inquiry, as there appears to have been no departure from prison rules. I should like to say clearly that there can be no question of the military authorities forcing men into the Army. These men are handed over to them as soldiers.
52. Mr. LLEWELYN WILLIAMSasked the Prime Minister whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the treatment received by Ithel Davies, of the 4th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, at the Military Detention Barracks, Mold, while serving his sentence for refusing for conscientious reasons to obey military orders; whether, on the first day of his detention, he was knocked and dragged about for ten or fifteen minutes by two or three officials so that he was bruised and sore all over; that he was then handcuffed for hours; whether he was given any dinner; whether the same treatment was meted out to him the second day with the addition that shovel fuls of mud and stones were thrown over him, and that he was placed in irons and a straight-jacket until bed-time; that on the third day one of the officials brutally ill-treated him and hit him in the face and broke his nose; whether, while in that condition a sergeant tried to drill him by himself and on his refusal dealt him many blows; whether Ithel Davies was released on 7th June and returned to the camp at Whittington, near Oswestry; whether he 286 has been court-martialled again for disobedience to military orders; what sentence has been passed upon him; and what is proposed to be done to him after such sentence has been served?
§ Mr. TENNANTI will make inquiries into these allegations.
§ Mr. OUTHWAITEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that similar instances are reported from many of the military prisons?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member should give notice, as that does not arise out of the question.