'Suspending' the Birch

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 1 March 1906, Page 2

'Suspending' the Birch

A cable-message published a few days ago in the secular press runs as follows :— ' Birching in the British navy has been suspended for a year, at the end of which time the officers will report upon the experiment.' This is, we trust, not a mere temporary respite for Jack Tar, but the permanent closing of an evil chapter in the history of the British navy. Thanks to the long and persistent efforts of Mr. Parnell and the Irish Party in the House of Commons, Tommy Atkins and Paddy Atkins and Sandy Atkins were permanently protected against the infliction of rod or ' cat ' by the Army Act of 1881. But some whiffs of the cruel spirit of another day seem to linger on among those who are the ' rulers of the King's navee.' They have not quite ' cast off ' from the fierce days of ' forty-five ' and after, when stern martinets tortured the country's defenders with the picket or sharpened stake, and when —both on sea and shore less than a hundred years agohumble wearers of the King's uniform had their flesh stripped almost to the bone by such barbarities as a thousand strokes of a loaded ' cat '

There* is no cruel or tyrant custom but will find its defenders. And the argument for plentiful rib-roastings with the ' cat ' found metrical expression in the following satirical lines :— ' The beaten soldier proves most manful, That, like his sword, endures the anvil ; And justly's held more formidable, The more his valor's malleable ; But he that fears a bastinado Will run away from his own shadow.' The British navy is now (we believe) the last fighting force in Europe where ' cai '-torture is inflicted. When the Army Act of 1881 was passed, it was generally believed that Jack Tar as well as Tommy Atkins was protected from the caprice and brutality of rough martinet officers. But it seems that the reform was not extended to the navy. For it appears that, by section 729 of the Naval Regulations, something like a complete discretion is vested in the captain to inflict ' corporal punishment '—the euphemism for floggang-^at pretty well any time and place he pleases. Till - a few days ago, the ' oat ' or rod still clawed and crosshatched . palpitating human flesh in the Empire's fighting shij)s. The Secretary for the Navy was flippant, supercilious, and sarcastic when challenged on the subject in the House of Commons last year. He , was likewise significantly .reticent as to the extent of the scandal. A communication from the Humanitarian Society m«t^with no reply. But in the House, of Commons^ he admitted that 1030 ' corporal .punishments ' and ' minor summary punishments ' had .taken "place in the King's ships in 1903. It may be safely assumed that the vastly greater part of these were the customary birchings and,canings administered to youths under eighteen years of age, in the presence of the assembled crews. The implements

used for. this purpose by the naval fiagellators are canes waxed at both ends and heavy birch rods nine "ounces in weight, steeped in brine and seasoned over, the coppers till they lacerate like steel. These scourgings are of ' daily occurrence in the navy. They are inflicted without trial, for all sorts of trivial offences, "and (as described by eye-witnesses) are cruel, brutal, and degrading/ It would be interesting to know if any New Zealanders, or how many, have had a direct personal experience of this mode of .' popularising the navy.' It is needless to say that such scourgings were inflicted by the sons of the rich on the sons of the poor. But — 'tis a way they have in the navy ! • Jack Tar may now raise his gallant head and hold it high in the face of the gold- braided bullies that scored his naked flesh with rod and rawhide. For this respite, thanks. But the thanks 'are due to Mr. Swift McNeill, Nationalist Member of Parliament for Ould Donegal. Last year Mr. McNeilPs sensational disclosures in the House of Commons regarding the brutalities of scourging in the navy led to the appointment of a Departmental Committee to revise the procedure of courts-martial and to deal with the power vested in officers of ordering corporal punishment. The tardy result of the Committee's deliberations has at length been cabled to pur shores. " The birch is to be ' suspended ' for a year— by way of experiment. It would be poetic justice if some of the worst offenders among the goldbraided flayers of Jack Tar were also ' suspended ' for a while, beside the birch— by the common hangman.