The Right to Appeal . .
When public attention is drawn to the procedure of courts-martial
it is usually the apparent anomalies of military law and the harshness of sentences which arouse criticism. Two recent cases, both involv- ing a capital charge, have aroused understandable concern, though in fact the doctrine that a soldier cannot claim immunity from the responsibilities of a citizen is one of our most valuable constitutional safeguards. The Courts-Martial (Appeals) Bill, which received a second reading on Monday, seeks to rectify what is, or should be, a genuine and long-standing grievance of the soldier, whereby for no sufficient reason he has been denied any opportunity (except in rare cases by petitioning the King) to appeal against the sentence of a military court. Nobody questions that a situation which grew up in the days of a small conscript army, and at a time when there was no court of criminal appeal, is now out of date. The Bill pro- vides for a court of appeal for all the services, and goes beyond the recommendations of the Lewis Committee in allowing for appeals on the ground of fact as well as of law. This is an important and sensible concession. It has also been decided to retain the automatic review of all cases by the Judge Advocate General's department. This decision, which is again contrary to the Lewis Committee's recommendations, could only really be objected to if it was shown to be likely to increase the congestion in that depart- ment, particularly in time of war. The Judge Advocate General and his staff were admittedly overworked during the war, as is shown by the peak figure of 54,000 courts-martial in one year, quoted during the _debate on Monday by Mr. Manningham-Buller. The waste of time and energy represented by this figure is enormous ; most of the cases were concerned with desertion, absence without leave, loss of equipment and so forth, which follow a fairly standard pattern of evidence and sentence. The simplest way to
reduce the Judge Advocate's burden would be to allow more com- petence to Commanding Officers to deal with cases which at present they are obliged to remit to court-martiaL
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