§ Mr. LANSBURYasked the Undersecretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the Report on the Administration of Criminal Justice for Burma for the year 1924, which contains references to numerous irregularities and mistakes and the appointment of junior magistrates to posts for which they have acquired practically no experience or training; whether these junior magistrates are empowered to pass sentence of death; and whether, seeing that the proposals of the Islington Committee of 1912 that junior magistrates should undergo training under a subordinate judge are stated in the above Report to be still under the consideration of the Secretary of State and awaiting his orders, he will state what steps he proposes to take to remedy this state of affairs?
§ Earl WINTERTONMy attention has been called to the Report to which the hon. Member refers. Only Sessions Judges or Additional Sessions Judges are empowered to pass sentence of death, and I have no reason to suppose that any Sessions Judge who was lacking in experience passed such a sentence in Burma in 1924; in any case, all death sentences are subject to confirmation by a High Court. As regards the third part of the question, I can find no reference in the Report to the Islington Commission. The Report was made to the Government of Burma and is no doubt receiving their consideration.