Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-04-18
DRUNKENNESS IS
CAUSE OF MANY
COURT MARTlALS
Either that or Fear is Cause
Of Most Trials Held Be-
hind Lines in France.

Paris, April neutrality-suspicious.
OF The Associated Press)-Two-thirds
Of the court martial cases at the war
front and Immediately behind the
front have developed from either
drunkenness or fear. sometimes IRON
both, according to Monsieur Rene de
Planhol who has had more h two
years experience as counsel for the
defense in such cases. Drum-head
court martials. with summary execu-
tons Of spies and deserters. have been
far less frequent than might be i'm
agined. Not only have sentences to
death been infrequent, but, extraor-
binary as it appears. the verdicts Of
Justice at the front are seldom exc
cuted.
The general in command. Of the Sec
tor has the power of suspending all
court martial sentences until the end
of the war, and he exercises that pre-
rogative nearly always, sven. in cases
of second offences. The only penal
ties Immediately applied are those OF
death and punishment that involves
military degradation. Even in these
cases the condemned nan usually
begs to be sent back to the battle line
and his request is sometimes accord
ed after a certain lapse Of time.
Sentences to prison and hard labor
are few. ]. Is considered absurd to
lodge in prison rugged soldiers whose
misdeeds would thus have the effect
OF relieving them from fighting while
we'll behaved soldiers are risking their
lives. That Is why military jurisdic-
ton at the front has become essenti-
ally a jurisdiction of honor.
The changed conditions Of warfare
have developed situations to which
old martial laws are not adaptable. A
much disputed point is: When has
an infraction of discipline or q crime
been committed ''in the presence of
the enemy" an ~aggravating circum-
stance under military jurisprudence.
In trench warfare the old definitions
of presence of the enemy have be-
come obsolete; great latitude is now
1t is exercised in all but the most fla
grant cases.
Under the old martial laws the sus-
pension of sentences for first offences
was not obligatory but was simply a
matter of discretion on the part OF the
general commanding. Amendments
passed by parliament in the urs OF
the present war make such extensions
Of sentence obligatory for all cases
excepting those Of capital offence.
Drunkenness, the most frequent of
all attractions Of law and discipline,
Is punished by Imprisonment from
two months upward.
A frequent and effective means of
defence invoked by couns for ac-
cused soldiers is the citation for gall
liant conduct on the battlefield. It
often happens that a soldier refrac-
tory to army discipline is a great
fighter and, between court martials.
accumulates honors and decorations
that 1t is difficult to ignore
One of the most obstinate drinkers
and most insolent men Of his regiment
when under the influence Of liquor,
went back to the front by favor of .
suspended sentence and won the sig
nal honor of an individual citation in
an engagement in which his regiment
was collectively cited. He appeared
bar on his war cross ribbon and his
judges couldn't refuse his request for
'another chance at the Germans"
Cases of desertion with downright
fear as the cause are not uncommon,
and Monsieur lie Planhol concludes
that very few soldiers are totally ex-
empt from fear. Men who have
fought bravely in numerous actions,
he says, finally give way to what he
age is no longer sufficient to overcome
physical fear and they run away from
danger. Their number, though Is
small in comparison with those who
forget their duty in the s~tupefaction
of excessive drinking. Even these,
considering the millions Of men mo-
bilized, are so small a percentage as
to constitute no reflection on the
army as a whole.
Anyone from a private to a colonel
may act as a defender Of the court
martialed soldier. Civilians also are
allowed to represent them ond some
eminent French lawyers. such as
Maitre Demange who was the chief
counsel for Captain Dreyfus, Matire
Michel Pelletier, and Maitre Henri
Gerand nave acted as counsel for the
defense of soldiers at the front.
It is estimated that $4,000 men of
this country are now on the firing line,
having gone there before wal was de-