22 JUNE 1918, Page 3

At a general Court-Martial at Pontefract on Tuesday curious statements

were made about the visits of ladies to the Lofthouse Park Prisoners of War Camp, Wakefield. Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant Albert Canning was charged with breaches of military discipline. Upon examination it turned out that the breaches of discipline amounted to protests against the visits by ladies to German officers upon what Mr. Canning regarded as in- sufficient authority. He seems to have behaved courageously and honestly, and we are glad to see that he was honourably acquitted. Colonel G. S. Haines said that Mrs. Leverton Harris, wife of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Blockade, had received permission from the Home Office to visit Baron Leopold von Plessen. Count Metternich and Count Nettenblad had been visited by other ladies. Mrs. Leverton Harris has since stated that she visited Baron Leopold von Plessen, a boy half Austrian, half English, who had been an undergraduate at Oxford, at the request of an American aunt of his. Her four visits since the beginning of the war had all been authorized and supervised. 'Ibis explana- seems to us satisfactory.