§ Sir W. BYLESasked 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. FORSTERThe 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. MORRELLasked 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?
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§ Mr. FORSTERConscientious objectors now undergoing detention fall into two categories:
As regards (l), there is no question of their being transferred to the civil power.
- (1) Those who are obeying military command, while under detention, and
- (2) Those who are not.
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.