COURTS-MARTIAL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 725, 26 January 1910, Page 5

COURTS-MARTIAL.

Sir,—ln. a recent paragraph you■ :re-' ferred': to:• the 'opinion .expressed. by..-a responsible officer of the Dominion Defence Forces that, "properly-constituted courts-martial" , . should'. be r introduced here. I have/just been reading in a Home paper, some very severo strictures upon tne whole courts-martial : system, and should, to know,, what your ' bet-ter-informed readers' think of - the mat-, ter, as' it affects every citizen under' our new military system, which in my judgment has been a ' piece of panic legislation by Parliament, without any authority . whatever .from the ' country. ' W oulu not the:.courts-martial 'bo a further serious filching : of our personal rights, and liberties on the lines of an ever-enslaving nnd ; demoralising inilitarism?' The Social Democratic -Federation ;at Home -is - labouring- for the abolition of- courts-martial, at least in time of peace." .And during* the Boer''War. the system was so much abiised.in SouthiAfrica that a commission of 'judges, had .to bo • ssnt out to the gross-.wrongs that had been ..done, and General Baden-Powell indulged m.aj scathing of, the sort of Men who constituted these couTts-martial. Parliament has already put the iron collar of militarism round every man s neck, except. those who, *. lite are . jwxst age; and militarism' itself-will get.;-the-.i rivets-forged, if the''democracy;is dumb. . -I am, etc., EDWARD WALKER., The' Manse, Halcombo,- ■ January, 2-1. ;