31 JULY 1920, Page 3

Mr. Justice Acton held in the case of Leaman v.

The King on Friday week that a soldier had no right to sue the Crown on a petition of right, for pay promised to him but afterwards withheld. This is doubtless good law, but it seems to us very doubtful as public policy at the present time. In the case it was stated that Mr. Leaman, on joining the Army Service Corps in September, 1914, was offered six shillings a day and he was paid at that rate until June, 1916. He was then told that his pay should have been a shilling a day, and he was compelled to refund the balance, amounting to £120. No private employer would have treated a man so shabbily, nor would a private employer have been allowed to break a contract, clearly expressed in the man's pay-book and carried on for nearly two years.