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Conscientious Objectors

Volume 103: debated on Wednesday 6 March 1918

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asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the conscientious objectors interned in Ireland are obtaining similar concessions to those objectors who are interned in England

There is nothing to add to the reply given by the Chief Secretary to a question by the hon. Member for the Dublin Harbour Division on this subject on the 6th February, except that the Scottish conscientious objectors in Irish prisons were removed to Scotland on the 22nd February.

asked the Minister of National Service whether those Italians liable under the Military Service (Conventions with Allied States) Act holding conscientious objections will be afforded similar treatment to that, of English conscientious objectors

Italian subjects who have elected to serve in the British Army under the Military Service (Conventions with Allied States) Acts, 1917, have the same rights of application to the tribunals for exemption as are possessed by British subjects, including the right to apply for exemption on the ground of a conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service.

asked the Home Secretary whether, since the reduction in the scale of dietary in His Majesty's prisons, there has been an increase in the number of conscientious objectors who have given in?

I do not know what the hon. Member means by "have given in." If he desires to know whether more conscientious objectors in prison have agreed to undertake military service, the answer is in the negative.

asked the Home Secretary how many conscientious objectors are at present in His Majesty's prisons who have served aggregate sentences of two years' hard labour; and where there is anything in the British law which allows of the most hardened criminals being sentenced under any pretext to periods of hard labour exceeding two years?

I cannot give this number without a search through the records at the different prisons which would involve more labour than I should feel justified in throwing on the prison staff at the pre sent time. There is nothing in English law to prevent the passing of successive sentences of imprisonment exceeding two years in the aggregate when successive offences are committed.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will have immediate inquiry made into the treatment and condition of Mr. Barker, a conscientious objector serving a term of imprisonment in Maidstone Gaol, who has nearly completed two years' imprisonment with hard labour; will he say whether this man has become a mental wreck and has partially lost his reason, and has been confined in a padded room; and whether he will at once release this man from such treatment?

This case has presented special difficulties. The man has peculiar ideas, objecting not only to military service, but to work in prison, to medical examination and to medical treatment; but there is no truth in statements that he has become a mental wreck, or that he has been confined in a padded room. After fully considering the reports, I have come to the decision that I am justified in recommending on medical grounds his release from prison and from military service.

asked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the statement made by a conscientious objector at Princetown that conscientious objectors had offered their services to act as stretcher bearers, but that the authorities had rejected their offer; will he say whether any such offer was made; and, if so, by whom and on what ground it was rejected?

My attention has not been called to any particular statement of this nature; but I am informed by the Committee on Employment of Conscientious Objectors that several of the men under their control have applied to be transferred for service with the R.A.M.C. These applications have been forwarded to the Army Council, who, how ever, have not felt able to accept the men's services. Other men have applied to be allowed to serve in the Friends' Ambulance Unit; but the authorities of the Unit and the Committee are agreed that such service is only suitable for such men as may be permitted by the Committee to take up exceptional employment under the. new Rules.