THE SUTOR CASE

Otago Witness, Issue 2955, 2 November 1910, Page 30

THE SUTOR CASE

LONDON, October 24. Lieutenant Sutor, who was recently court-martial led as a consequence of writing articles criticising the army, has been ordered into barracks and has been deprived of his .sword. October 25. It is understood that no further proceedings will be taken against Lieutenant Sutor. . _ October 26. . > Lieutenant Sutor is under close arrest at Tynemouth, because when questioned regarding a newspaper interview he intimated that iie did not desire to enter into any explanations to Mr Haldane or the Army Council. (From Que Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 16. According to Lieutenant Sutor there exists to-day in the army a condition of military hypocrisy; officers organise pageants, soldiers sing odes to peace, and efficiency is lost sight of. The lieutenant has been court-martialled for contravening the King's regulations by publishing, without special permission, a pamphlet entitled "The Amv System; or, why Muddle through £30,000,000 a-year during Peace ?" At tho conclusion of Lieutenant Sutor's remarkable speech in defence the court •"'"" Bfid Xfafl following passage be-

tween the president-of the court and the lieutenant sufficiently indicates the temper of the inquiry:—The president said the charge to be tried was whether Lieutenant Sutor published a pamphlet containing- his opinion on a military subject without authority to do so. Lieutenant Sutor: I don t attempt to deny that. It doesn't require 10 officers to com© here to decide whether I did that. The court has tried to limit the question to the technical point of whether I broke a particular regulation or not, but surely you are not high legal luminaries; you •are men, and I ask that you will go into the question of the truth of my statements. This regulation I am charged with having broken is a recent one. I'he army has been able to get on without it for hundreds of years. The army has always, then, been able to tell the truth. The speech for the defence was not without comedy, the lieutenant scarcely touching on the charge against , him.. '"When I joined the army," he explained, " I had graduated at a university, had had a good legal training, and acted a little time as head master of a school. I had no private means, and I went into the army with a view to making my career. But I soon found that there was practically nothing for me to do. My work occupied me 20 minutes a day, and even then it was absolutely futile and inane. It consisted of signing papers which I did not understand and which nobody understood." On the first day he joined his captain was very kind to him, and took him down to his room and showed him his (the captain's) gold lace, which was carefully wrapped up in tissue paper. By 10.30 a.m. his duties for the day were fully completed. In the afternoon he saw not a single soul. He did not know what to do. Secretaries for War had not then begun to deliver speeches on the magnificent reforms which they had introduced into the army, otherwise he might have spent a profitable afternoon reading them. He had an excellent time in the army, he said, but it did not blind him to the futility of the system. . He soon gave up the idea of working to got on. His 10 years' service had only strengthened the impression he formed during the first few days. Lieutenant Sutor proceeded to criticise at length the system of instruction in the army. It seemed, he said, to be in the direction of officers learning nothing and forgetting everything. It was not that the officers .elected to learn nothing; on the contrary, they desired to learn everything and forget nothing, and often they made themselves efficient by main force. But it was not the system that made them efficient. They did it themselves, He contended that efficiency was too important a matter to be left to personal idiosyncracy. In his pamphlet he had criticised the defences of the Tyns. He believed that the criticism might be made general, and that there was not a single garrison in the whole of our possessions that did not represent a state of scandalous neglect. Lieutenant Sutor showed a good deal of emotion at this period of his speech. "In these days in this Christian country," he cried, "people are asking for proof of the existence of the Almighty. They ask that He sha'l come down and show "Himself to them. There are only two people of whose existence they don't ask proof. These are the Secretary for War and the First Lord of the Admiralty." He spoke bitterly of the work of eome high army officers. "You can still get dirty work done in the army if you only go near enough to the top"'; and a littlo later, alluding to his officers, he said, ''lhank .God, some of them are now abroad announcing the death of King Edward VII." The system to-day was not favourable to Kitcheners or young ona»s. Officer? now organised military pageant?, and soldieis were trained to sing odes to peace. He had been charged with not being a serious man, but it was a serious step he had taken, and it had been a great pain to him to have to get up against an organisation so big, and in which so many men for whom lie had the highest respect and esteem were involved. He; had a wife and family, and no private means, and it was a very serious step that he had taken. He was thankful he had been allowed a court-martial, though that had only been granted on account of the publicity given to this case. It had not been so full and complete an investigation as he could have wished but it was better than the treatment given to some poor devils who were turned out without a word being said. Concluding, he said, "Technically I am the accused; you are my judges. I think, gentlemen, the boot is on the other leg "