At the Winchester Assizes on Monday, before Mr. Justice Bankes,
Lieutenant Siegfried Helm, of the German Army, was tried on the charge of having unlawfully made sketches and plans of the Portsmouth defences. He pleaded guilty. The Attorney-General pointed out that the offence was clearly punishaMe by English law, but as the defendant had been four weeks in prison before being released on bail, he would ask the Judge to deal with him with the utmost leniency he might think fit, provided that the defendant would express his regret and undertake not to repeat the offence. The defendant's counsel offered some arguments in extenuation, and remarked that the defendant himself desired to have it said in open Court that he had been treated with the utmost courtesy and with the most absolute fairness. Mr. Justice Bankes sentenced the defendant to be bound over in £250 to come up for judgment when called upon, and added:—" I trust that when you leave this country you will leave it with a feeling that, although we may be vigilant, and perhaps from your point of view too vigilant, in the detection of offenderis against our laws, yet in the administration of those laws we are just and merciful, not only to those who are subjects of this realm, but also to those who, like yourself, seek the hospitality of our shores." The defendant having consented to be bound over, he was at once discharged.
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