The Interdepartmental Committee who were appointed with Mr. J. J.
Lawson as Chairman to enquire into dis- ciplinary amendments to the Army and Air Force Acts have now reported. They recommend that the death penalty should be abolished for all military offences in peace-time except mutiny, and mutiny should not include individual acts of insubordination. On active service, however, they insist that the death penalty must be re- tained. They point out that it has had a deterrent; far more than a vindictive, effect and that there is ample scope for revision and mitigation. It is not safe to abolish this last dreadful reserve. Take it away and expect the public spirit of comrades to effect the same discipline and you may have either a relaxation of discipline or find exasperated soldiers shooting a comrade without trial., For the crime of sleeping on sentry duty, for instance, endangering whole operations and the lives of fellows, the extreme penalty must hang over the heads of fallible human beings. The Committee recom- mend that certain less extreme offences of violence, refusing to help a Provost-Marshal, &c., should be transferred to categories for which there is no death penalty. The Committee and witnesses fully represented the opinion of all ranks as well as legal and religious opinion. They pay a satisfactory tribute to the fairness of the administration of the law in the past, and we think that their recommendation will be approved by all except those who on principle deny man's right to take man's life. On Wednesday in the House of Commons a Labour motion to abolish the death penalty in the Army was heavily defeated. .
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