§ 71. Mr. DORISasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Patrick M'Cann, of Manulla, county Mayo, a migratory labourer, who came to England on 29th January, 1916, was arrested at Birkenhead on 2nd May instant, and charged at Birkenhead borough Police Court with having failed to register on 15th August, 1915, when he was at home in Ireland, and with being an absentee from His Majesty's Army on 1st March, 1916; and that the accused was convicted and fined on both charges and handed over to the military authorities, who have placed him in the Reserve Battalion, 3rd Monmouth Regiment, although evidence that he was at home in-Ireland from Christmas, 1914, to 29th January, 1916, was not disputed, and his English employer, a milk purveyor, deposed that the employment was only temporary; and will steps be taken to have the fines remitted and to have this Irish migratory labourer, who has not been ordinarily resident in Great Britain, discharged from military service?
§ Mr. TENNANTInquiry is being made.