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Show Baker Upholds the Army Procedure I In Courts Martial WASHINGTON. Aug. 21. -In ap proving the repon submitted to him by Major Central Francis J Kernan, head of tho special war deportment board on couris martial and their procedure. pro-cedure. Secretary Baker today took ihe official stand that the preaeni lem should not bo changed except in minor details. Inferential y the secretary secre-tary upheld General Kernan's view rh.it "court marlials have always been agencies for creating and malntainln? the discipline or armies" rather than agencies for the "nice exemplification of technical rules of law." The war department board's report reflected tho opinion of 225 officers who were circularized loro ,han half of these gave hear;y approval to ihe present system, forty-three condemned con-demned it as basically wrong and the remainder, a total of 67, pointed out specitic weaknesses which thev thought should be remedied. The most serious defect In the existing exist-ing system, the report asserts, arise-from arise-from the "lack of competent trial judce advocates and counsel" ,,nd . .1 remedy it is recommended that de-fense de-fense counsel be appointed for each eeneral and special court martial, and that spuria Inducements be offered young oflicers to Btudv law in order that they may be fitted for these and other special duties. "It is noticeable," the report said, "that officers who served v.rn ticV ing units are as a class favorable to the present articles; on the other hand, officers whose duties kept them remote from the scenes of battle view the svstem with a more rntieal ep." Deelaring that "the sovereign" remedy rem-edy propose-. by the most pronounced critics i.s to transfer administration to those who are lawyers first and soldiers sol-diers by courtesy only. General Kernan expressed the opinion that this would make it impossible for the commander comman-der to obtain among his troops tne necessary discipline to military' success suc-cess which is tho "first purposo of an army." The report criticises tho pending Chamberlain bill which would take from (ho president and tho war department de-partment heads the power to review court martinis findings and place appeal ap-peal 'in civilian hands, pure and siiu-pie, siiu-pie, that is. the court of military appeals, ap-peals, or in the quasi civilian hands I of the judge advocates provided for general and special court martial." Under Un-der such a system, the report holds, "tho power to discipline effectively, inseparately bound up with the power of effective command, would be paralyzed para-lyzed " Referring to charges that sentence? j Imposed upon soldiers for minor offenses of-fenses have been "grotesquelj i severe," the report takes the view that although such were the possible effects of apparently trifling misdeeds in most cases, other factors justified the findings. General Kernan and the other members mem-bers of the board express strong opposition oppo-sition to the Chamberlain bills proposal pro-posal that enlisted men be appointed to si( on courts on the ground that it is out of harmony with the American! conception of democracy and of our j confidence in our institutions " |