§ 16. Mr. KINGasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, by Army Council Instruction of 19th May, 1917, No. 817, of 1917, instructions have been issued to the Irish police and military authorities for dealing with absentees who have proceeded to Ireland; whether these instructions include directions for bringing such persons from Ireland to England without the order of a Court of competent jurisdiction in Ireland; and, if so, on what Statute or Order in Council is such direction grounded?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThe instructions issued provide that when the recruiting 921 officer is satisfied after due inquiry that a man has proceeded to Ireland in order to evade his obligations under the Military Service Acts, 1916 and 1917, the recruiting officer will apply to a magistrate having jurisdiction in the area in which the man has failed to report for the issue of a warrant for the man's arrest, and the warrant when issued will be transmitted to Ireland and duly backed, when the man will be taken into custody by the civil power and brought to the area from which he has absented himself for trial by a Court of summary jurisdiction. The procedure is based on the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, the Reserve Forces Act, 1882, and the Military Service Act, 1916.
§ Mr. KINGFor all that, does it not mean that the Courts in Ireland would have, under previous arrangements, and under the usual legal procedure, the right to review such warrant before a prisoner was sent to England, and is not that procedure now being done away with without any legal warrant?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI do not think so. The procedure is, as I said in the answer to the question, a proper one.
§ Mr. ARTHUR SAMUELSIs it mot very usual to have warrants issued in England executed in Ireland?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONYes, it is.