HC Deb 04 June 1918 vol 106 cc1385-6
17. Mr. SNOWDEN

asked the Home Secretary why A. Miles, No. 33113, who was released from Wandsworth Prison on the 21st ult., on the expiration of his term of imprisonment as a conscientious objector, is being detained in solitary confinement in the police station, Stafford Road, Wallington; and why this man is not sent back to his unit but retained in civil custody?

The UNDER-SECRETARY Of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Brace)

This man is detained pending his trial by court-martial, under orders given by the military authority. He has proper open-air exercise, and has been visited by his friends of both sexes; and, so far as the police are aware, he has made no complaint.

Mr. SNOWDEN

Will the right hon. Gentleman explain why he should be confined in a civil prison or police station for seven weeks awaiting court-martial?

Mr. BRACE

I really could not say.

Mr. SNOWDEN

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the information he has just given me is very belated, and that this man has already had his court-martial?

Mr. BRACE

That would not surprise me.

18. Mr. SNOWDEN

asked the Home Secretary if H. Walker, a conscientious objector in Newcastle Gaol, has been forcibly fed and if inquiry will be made into the allegations of barbarous treatment by the prison medical officer; whether Walker was forced to the cell floor, held down by several officers, and a feeding-tube forced through his nose in such a violent manner as to cause intense suffering and bleeding, meanwhile the doctor sitting laughing at him and taunting him by imitating his moans and cries; and whether the man is still in a state of extreme weakness as a consequence of this treatment?

Mr. BRACE

These allegations have been investigated by the visiting committee of the prison, who find that the prisoner's refusal to take food made it necessary to administer food artificially; that the prisoner violently resisted; that no more force was used by the prison officials than was required to overcome his violence; that the medical officer behaved in a kindly and considerate manner throughout, and that the prisoner is not in a state of weakness owing to his treatment, and has since then taken food voluntarily.