HC Deb 13 July 1916 vol 84 cc548-9W
Sir W. BYLES

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that Alfred W. Evans, a conscript who objected on grounds of conscience to the taking of life but offered himself for the Royal Army Medical Corps, was placed in the Non-Combatant Corps and refusing to obey military orders was shipped to France and there sentenced to death, the sentence-being commuted to ten years' penal servitude; and whether he will serve his sentence in a military prison or will be brought back to England and transferred for punishment to the civil authority?

Mr. FORSTER

The hon. Member may rest assured that all prisoners sentenced to penal servitude are sent to England as soon as the necessary arrangements for their movement have been made. The procedure is clearly laid down in Section 58 of the Army Act.

Mr. MORRELL

asked the Secretary of State for War whether steps will be taken to bring those men who are now under-going detention for refusing, on conscientious grounds, to obey orders under the provisions of the new scheme so that they may be transferred to civil custody; and when this will be done?

Mr. FORSTER

Conscientious objectors now undergoing detention fall into two categories:

  1. (1) Those who are obeying military command, while under detention, and
  2. (2) Those who are not.
As regards (l), there is no question of their being transferred to the civil power.

With regard to (2), these men are being brought before courts-martial, and will thus come under the new scheme and be transferred to civil custody in due course.