§ Colonel BURNasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that on 7th November a young soldier, never previously charged, was fined by Mr. Israel 1288W Symmons, the Greenwich stipendiary, 40s. for assault on the police and 5s. for being drunk; that in default of instant payment this soldier, aged twenty, was committed to Wandsworth prison for one month, and released from this prison by a visiting justice paying his fine on 11th November; and whether, as this young soldier had a fixed address, he proposes to call this stipendiary's attention to his recent circular letter to magistrates relative to the desirability of always granting time for the payment of a fine to a first offender whose whereabouts is a matter of common knowledge?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe prisoner was guilty of a serious assault on the police. He was found early in the morning drunk and using filthy language to a woman. He was asked by a police constable to go away, but refused to do so, and struck the constable. Another constable then came to the assistance of the first, and the prisoner deliberately kicked the second constable on the jaw. He was very violent on the way to the station, and the officer whom he had kicked was on the sick list for several days. It is usual in cases of serious assault on the police to pass a sentence of hard labour, and this prisoner was only given the option of a fine in view of his previous good character. He was offered time in which to pay but refused, saying he was on furlough and did not want to send to his regiment for money.