commissioned officers towards their men. - A Lieutenant of the 98th,
Regiment of Infantry was convicted on Tuesday of ill-treating private soldiers in six hundred and ninety-eight cases—in one of which the victim had become totally unfit for military service—and of treating his men contrary to the Regulations in fifty-seven cases, and was sentenced to fifteen months' imprisonment and dismissal from the Service. On the same day a former non-commissioned officer of the 85th Regiment of Infantry was tried by Court-Martial at Rensburg for the maltreatment of soldiers in no fewer than fifteen hundred and twenty cases, borrowing money without repayment in twenty cases, and other offences contrary to the Regulations. The evidence of medical experts and many witnesses revealed most revolting brutality on the part of the prisoner, who was condemned to five years' imprisonment and degradation, the heaviest sentence which has been imposed of late years for maltreatment of soldiers. An even more satisfactory symptom of the determination of the authorities to deal resolutely with the evil is to be found in the fact that the proceedings were conducted in public at the instance of the prosecution, on the ground that a public trial was in the interests of the Service.
