MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2030, 17 August 1920, Page 6

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE.

On October 25, 15)16, VI. 11. Thompson entered camp, was medically boarded by Captain llotop and another ollicer, and classed as permanently unlit owing to physical disabilities. He was set at work in Ihe clerical department, was reexamined by the same men in August, 1017, and classified as ill. Thompson protested in the following words: "No medical examination of me is of any value when one of the examiners is -noticeably under the influence of liquor." For this he was placed under arrest. Subsequently he was court-martialled and sentenced lo .112 days' confinement "for making such statement knowing.it to he false." Last year Captain Hot op's wife obtained a divorce on the ground that her husband had been an habitual drunkard for the preceding four years. Thompson petitioned Parliament this session for redress and compensation and his petition has been reported to the Covernment for favourable consideration. The Petitions Committee which examined the case ciiinc lo the conclusion that the petitioner had been unjustly imprisoned; hence its recommendation. The revision of Ihe court-martial by a Parliamentary body lias completely cleared Thompson's name. But he is entitled to something more

substantial. Obviously, he has been the victim of a flagrant miscarriage of justice, and pecuniary compensation should be awarded him. That is one side; there is another aspect which calls for comment. Apparently the decisions of courts-martial are held to be as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians. Apparently, also, it is taken for granted that in such proceedings no mistakes are possible. The military mind is above error when it comes to trying a soldier. The more one reads of courts-martial here and elsewhere, the more one is convinced that the Thompson instance must have been repeated numerously. And, so far as New Zealand is concerned, the then Minister of Defence, a hard-and-fast militarist, laid it down that his officers could do no wrong. That sort of Prussian nonsense at a time when we were just serving our apprenticeship in the art of real war made possible the scandalous treatment so arrogantly and easily meted out to Thompson. It is a striking illustration of what military domination is capahle. Put the average man into uniform, make him an officer, get him soaked in the barracks atmosphere, and lo—he is a new and strange being who has developed v into a martinet with the traditional martinet's narrow but severe perspective. This country wants as few of that type as it is possible to have.