Norwich bulletin., 1916-04-07
Stories of the War
The Court Martial.

The veil of secrecy is nowhere
deeper than over the doings OF the
court martial. In one division OF the
French army, it is known that since
the beginning of the war, the court
martial has deal with 3l5 cases II
has passed the death sentence on "a
men, OF whom, however, only 10 were
executed, the other obtaining par
dons or combinations.
An officer. attached to this division
as a permanent court official has given
to a correspondent OF the Daily Mail
some details OF the workings of the
tribunal You must remember, he
said. that armies today are made up
of men of all shades and colors OF
belief and creed, Anarchists, Repubi-
cans, Royalists, Atheists and what
not. Out of this material we have
welded together an army, the like Of
which the world has never seen.
1T is not. however, the bad eggs of
whom there are a few in every reS1-
ment, who give us trouble in the mat
ter of desertion in the face of the en-
envy but rather the better sort OF fell
lows, who cannot understand the mil
itary necessity of harsh discipline.
our first court martial in a case Of
this kind occurred fairly early in the
year. We were new TO the business
ourselves, but IL was tiagrant breach,
and to check its repetition it had to
be dealt with according to the rules
of the war. The man was duly tried
and sentenced. l went to his cell and
read the death sentence to him. He
! listened without seeming to under
stand what had taken place and that
/ he was condemned to die.
That night 1 instructed an officer to
call for a firing squad. Our firing
squads are always composed Of vol
untcers. twelve men Not man
! volunteered for that task. We had to
| commander a squad The prisoner
\ was marched out at dawn. stood quiet
/ ly facing the ievelled rifles, and died
| without faltering. l am sure he never
realized the gravity of his offense.
! But war is war.
| Now it is different. The men know
the value of discipline. know that a
| breach may endanger the lives of
many comrades or even the safety of
! France. and though breaches Of this
kind still occur, they are met in a
a firing squad fifty men at once VOL
unteer."
rs the family notified that a man
has been executed?' asked the in
terviewer.
Yes and no., the officer replied
The French code is peculiar. Noti-
fication of death is sent to the fam
lily soon after the execution as though
the man died in action. Then three
months later the family receives a bill
). Tor 100 francs lSZ.oU). the expenses
of the execution. But otherwise there
is no publicity. The grave is mo-
marked officially, but a record is kept
so that it will not be difficult to To-
cate later on.
Occasionally we have to deal will
the case of a man who has become
sick of the trenches and thinks tina
| the easiest way to get an honorabl
| discharge is to wound himself, shoe
off his trigger finger or the like. ThiI
is a capital offense in time Of war, an,
is in variably so punished.
"A recent case of this kind was tina
of a young lieutenant who was mar
ried three days before the outbreak o
the war. He was gallant soldier. bu
l after a few months homesick, an
4 to get back to his wife was his on
/ desire. Months passed and he coul
not get leave so he took matters 4
/ his own hands and drove a bulle
/ through his left forearm. He did nc
| stop to think that IL would soon
discovered that his wound was cause
L by a French bullet.
HE was court martialed and sen
fenced to be shot. l read the deaf
Il sentence, but a few hours later a par
Il don reached US. But the Heutenar
J knew his duty and fell fighting in tn