§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this be the Second Schedule to the Bill."
§ Mr. MORGAN JONESMay I ask one question of the Financial Secretary to the War Office? On page 14, the paragraph amending Section 64 of the Army Act reads as follows:
After Sub-section (3) there shall be inserted the following Sub-section:'(3a) A military prisoner or soldier under sentence of detention who was sentenced in a Dominion shall undergo his sentence either in that Dominion, or in the United Kingdom, or in such other place as may be prescribed.'I would like to ask what precisely is intended by this proposed new Sub- 597 section? It seems to me that it gives very wide powers indeed—so wide that a person who had been sentenced might be sent to the other end of the world in carrying out the sentence of the court. He might have committed an offence in, say, Australia, but there appears to be nothing here to prevent his being sent for detention to Canada. Why is it that this very wide power is being sought?
§ Mr. COOPERThe object of these words is this: Supposing that British troops were being withdrawn from the locality in which the offence was committed, then the man sentenced could be taken with them and undergo his sentence in whatever other place the troops might move to in the future. They might be going to some different station, or to some place abroad, and it is necessary to provide for the possibility of the sentence being served in another place, because otherwise the Clause would not be operative.
§ Third Schedule (Amendments of the Air Force Act) and Fourth Schedule (Enactments repealed) agreed to.