§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War what inquiries were instituted into the antecedents of James Bray, an Irish carpenter, who has worked on military buildings since the outbreak of War and is now, as No. 8384, Reserve Battalion, 18th County of London Regiment, being punished for refusing to become a soldier; whether his account of himself, that he has worked as a carpenter on military buildings at Athlone, Arklow, Queenstown, Dublin, Ripon, Richmond, Sheffield, Coventry, Birmingham, Anston. and Regent's Park, in immediate succession, has been found untrue in any particular; and, he having come to this country solely for this skilled war work and therefore not being ordinarily resident here, where he now is, whether he is still being punished illegally and when be will be released?
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§ Mr. MACPHERSONInquiries have been made into the facts of this case, and as it appears that James Bray has been employed on work in connection with Government contracts almost continuously since his arrival in Great Britain, it has been decided as an act of grace to discharge him from military service. I would remind the hon. Member that Bray was arrested by the civil police on their own initiative, and was properly handed over to the military authorities by a stipendiary magistrate who had heard the necessary evidence and decided that Bray was liable for military service, and in these circumstances there is no question of his having been punished illegally.