GUARDS’ RULE CRITICISED

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1937, Page 8

GUARDS’ RULE CRITICISED

“TALKING TRIPE.” LONDON, January 3. A magistrate told a Guards lieutenant yesterday that he had been talking “tripe.” . The case arose at Woking out of a theft charge to which a strapping young Guardsman of 22, Alfred Cor j toh, of the 2nd Coldstreams, pleaded guilty. The officer told the court they did not want Corton back if he was convicted. “The . Army is crying out for men, and yet we have got to listen to such tripe as this,” exclaimed the magistrate after rising of the court. Corton had pleaded guilty to stealing; two overcoats, valued at £B, and two pairs of gloves, valued at 37/6 .from unattended motor cars at Brookwood on Boxing Night. In extenuation he said he had been drinking beer and was drunk. On his way back to Pirbright Camp he must have taken the things, but he remembered nothing about it until the following morning, when he saw the overcoat and a pair of gloves in his hut. A police officer said the second overcoat was found in the drive of a house about 300 yards from the' camp, but the other pair of gloves had not been recovered. The Lieutenant told the court that Corton had a good character, and had no civil convictions against him. “You will take him back?” asked the clerk. “No,” replied the Lieutenant, “not if he is convicted.” “And the Army wants men . . .” exclaimed Eng. Rear-Admiral C. C. Sheen in disgust. “Don’t you want him back in any case?” asked Capt. S. M. Pearce, a magistrate. “No, not if he is convicted.” “He has pleaded guilty,” said the clerk. “What is your definition .of conviction, Lieutenant?” “If he is sentenced.” “Your definition of a conviction is different to ours,” remarked the clerk. Binding him over for 12 months, and ordering him to pay 20/- in respect of the lost gloves, Sir Laurence Halsey the chairman, added that this was not a conviction. “Then,” said the Lieutenant, “we will take him back.”