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Show GENERAL GIBSON'S REPORT. Ho Dorm Not Want the Court SUrtaal Taken Out of III. Hands. Washington, Oct. 27. The Secretory Secreto-ry of war has received the annual report re-port of Brigadier General John Gibbon, commanding the department of the Columbia. He reports the Indians of the extreme northwest are perfectly peaceful. He says he thinks they will remain so indefinitely, unless goaded to desperation by the constant encroachments of the whites and their acts of injustice. He says in regard to court martials "Supposed irregularities In court-martial court-martial proceedings recently have given rise to a good deal of comment throughout through-out tne country, and a proposition proposi-tion has been made to take from the department commanders the power to order general courts and vest it only in division commanders. command-ers. I am of theopinion that this would be a great mistake and would not be in furtherance of the administration of justice and would simply add one more to the disadvantages of the present division div-ision organization. He recommends, however, certain improvements in the administration of of military justice as follows: To authorize the secretary by law to establish a schedule of punishments for certain well defined offences, to which the courts should conform in their sentences, by requiring a strict compliance with the law in convening the general courts, by establishing a military court of appeal whose duties should be similar to the corresponding civil courts. General Gibbon reports the troops in his department in good condition as regards re-gards discipline and drill, and gives it as his opinion that the various measures taken to decrease the number of desertions deser-tions in the army will result beneficially. |
