§ Mr. CAPEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether Colonel C. J. Pickering ordered the "Freeman's Journal" to publish in its issue of 4th February an apology for an article entitled "Military Law," commenting upon the trial by court-martial of Joseph Murphy, who has since been reprieved, and forbidding the "Freeman" to make any other comment upon the subject; and whether, seeing that, apart from two minor inaccuracies, one of which was corrected by a correspondent on the following day, the article was considered by most Irish people to be substantially justified, this attack upon freedom of opinion in Ireland was made by the military with or without the sanction of the civil authorities?
§ Mr. HENRYThe military authorities requested the editor to publish an apology, as stated in the hon. Member's question, and the editor complied with this request. The article entitled "Military Law" contained an account of the procedure at the court-martial in question which was untrue in a number of material points, and it based upon this untrue account and upon other misstatements of fact a severe and totally unjustified condemnation of trial by court-martial. It is unnecessary for the military authorities to obtain the sanction of the civil authorities before requesting a newspaper to apologise for a mis-statement.