DEFENCE SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 99, 20 January 1933, Page 13

DEFENCE SERVICES

News of Rank and File

ON PARADE AND OFF

Topics of the Moment

(By "Liaison.”)

Lieutenant-Commander G. F. Bothainley, of the Wellington Division, R.N.V.R., has been placed on the retired list, with permission to retain his rank and wear the prescribed uniform. A popular officer, Mr. Bothamley has been on the strength since the formation of the division, and his retirement will be regretted by all ranks and ratings.

The 1933 training year for the Wellington Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve will commence on Tuesday, February 7. From then on, parades will be held on three nights a week until December. R.N.V.R. ratings who have qualified for gunnery, mine-sweeping, signals, or wireless telegraphy are in future to wear their badges four inches from the point of the shoulder on the right arm. Leading Seamhn Ewan Cameron has been promoted to probationary sub-lieu-tenant.

Ratings Become Officers. The list of naval appointments in England for November 21 included the promotion to the rank of acting sub-lieu-tenant of eight specially selected ratings from the lower deck. All the new officers have been promoted for training in the Naval Barracks at the three borne ports, as follow: —. To' Chatham (H.M.S. Pembroke) : Leading Seaman E. B. Bull. Acting Leading Seaman E. A. Greenwood, and Able Seaman E. Ingram. . ' To Devonport (H.M.S. Vivid) : Acting Leading Seaman F. C. Rekeigh, Able Seaman T. F. Taylor, and N. T. O'Neil. . To Portsmouth (H.M.S. Victory): Acting Leading Stamen G. S. Ward and A. F. Paterson. This is the second bntc-h of advancements from the lower deck since the abolition of the intermediate ranje of mate.

Plight of a V.C. Ex-Sergeaht-Majbr James Clarke. 15th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (Rochdale). Who won the V.C. during the war. is playing a barrel-organ in the streets of Northampton for a living. He joined-the

army in October, 1915, and was discharged in May, 1919.

"For eight years after 1 was discharged from the army,” Mr. Clarke said, "I was employed as a stoker at a gasworks near Rochdale. Then sickness overlook me, and I was incapacitated by illness. For a time 1 worked at Dagenham, Essex, but for 15 months I have had no regular employment. Mr. Clarke received one of the hist Victoria Crosses awardee! in the war, for gallantry at Ilappegarbe on November 2, 3, and 4, 1918. ' Burma Military Police.

As further information has been sought concerning the Burma Military Police, possibly the following facts may be of interest. British officers are seconded from the Indian Army for four years as assistant commandants, and those selected return for a second tour as commandants. They must, however, do three years regimental duty before returning. The establishment up to the middle of 1031 was nine Bn. commandants and 26 assistants. There are no reserves to allow for leave, sickness, columns, etc., so the force is always short of officers. Owing to the rebellion. a temporary increase of ten officers was sanctioned in 1932. This small cadre has to train and administer a force equal in strength to a division, educate it. and maintain a high standard of efficiency in nil branches of military training, including musketry, signalling, mounted infantry and pioneer work. The standard of education is the same as that for the Indian Army, and the difficulties in a force scattered in isolated outnosts can easily lie imagined. Selected N.C.O.’s are sent to the Army School of Education at Belgaum. Portugal Orders Ships.

The Portuguese Government has decided to allot contracts for two sloops and two submarines for the Portuguese Niivy to British firms.

In addition, four motor-launches of the type used by the Royal Air Force are being tried out by the Portuguese Government with a view to their being used with the new Portuguese destroyers. The Law and the Soldier.

After the lawyer and the policeman there is probably no one whose duties bring him into touch with a greater variety of branches of the law than the officer. First, and. perhaps of chief importance, there is the special code of law under which the members of bis service are governed in their capacity of sailors, soldiers of airmen. This code the officer has personally to administer. Tn so doing he exercises a very wide jurisdiction over the liberties of that portion of the population to which it applies. The service codes of law are intimately connected with the ordinary law of the land and arc. in fact',' of the same stuff and essence. ■ For the greater part of their validity they depend upon Acts of Parliament and they are interpreted by the same principles as are applied in the civil courts to the determination of legal problems. In performing courtmartial functions, officers have to use the same principles of procedure, the same rules of evidence, and the same forms of judicial interpretation as the lawyer uses in the ordinary courts. The officer’s contact with the law does not, however, end with that, his special code. He has to perform his ordinary duties of command and administration under the surveillance, as it were, of the ordinary law, with rights in many respects not greater than those of his fellow subjects who do not share his duties. Thus the officer who finds himself charged with the suppression of riot, or. in a less romantic sphere, the dispatch upon the King’s Highway of such an engine of destuetion as a oOcwt. lorry, bears a responsibility intimately connected with the ordinary ,lrfw of the land; • - :