The Times of Tuesday contained a long letter from Rear-Admiral
Cochrane in reference to the recent inci- dents in the Grenadier Guards. The letter is, of course, an ex parts statement of the case of one of the officers concerned, and until matters have gone further—for the case will be discussed in the House of Commons— sensible men will do best to suspend their judgment. The allegations made by Admiral Cochrane in his letter are that for years past, in the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, it has been the custom to "hand over" to the senior subaltern young officers charged either with social or with military offences ; that when an officer has been thus "handed over," he has been tried by an irregular Court-Martial of subalterns, which trial has usually ended in the officer tried receiving a flogging of a peculiarly degrading nature. Admiral Cochrane's nephew, for a military offence, had been subjected to this kind of trial and punishment, and, according to Admiral Cochrane, with the virtual consent of his command- ing officer. As the result of complaints made in this and apparently in other cases, Colonel Kinloch, the commanding officer of the battalion, has been placed on half-pay,—a sentence which has evoked in certain quarters considerable criticism of Lord Roberts, who has been accused of removing a well-known and successful regimental officer without giving him the opportunity of defending himself.
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