CO885-(2-3) — Page 369

LIST OF PAPERS.

No.

1. Memorandum by Mr. Taylor on Martial Law

2. Memorandum by Sir William Power on the same

Page

1

13

3. Instructions for Naval Forces landed to suppress Insurrection

14

4. Cases of Martial Law in Canada, Ceylon, Cephalonia, and Jamaica

16

5. Opinion of Lord Campbell and Lord Cranworth relative to Martial Law in Canada in 1887

31

6. Opinion of Sir Rouudell Palmer and Sir R. P. Collier relative to Martial Law in Jamaica in 1865 7. Further Opinion of the above Law Officers on the same

32

35

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O.885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

No. 1.

Memorandum by Mr. Taylor on Matiers connected with Martial Law.

}

SIR HENRY STORKS, in a despatch from Jamaica of the 16th March, 1866, suggested that some rules should be established for the conduct of proceedings in a district where Martial Law is proclaimed; that "the relative position of the Governor and of the officer commanding the troops should be, as far as possible, accurately defined;" and that "the responsibilities attaching

to the troops and to the military tribunals should be settled by competent authority."

And in the Report of the Royal Commission the following opinion is expressed :-

"We think that much which is now lamented might have been avoided if clear and precise instructions had been given for the regulation of the conduct of those engaged in the suppression, and every officer had been made to understand that he would be held responsible for the slightest departure from those instructions. It does not seem reasonable to send officers upon a very difficult and perfectly novel service without any instructions, and to leave everything to their judgment."

With regard to the relative position of the Governor and of the officer commanding the troops, a definition of it, as existing generally, and as existing during warfare from foreign aggression, has been more than once matter of conference and consideration between the military authorities and the Colonial Department; and the definition agreed upon many years ago, and printed in former editions of the Rules and Regulations of the Colonial Service, was last revised in concert with Lord

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3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON