The Blue-book containing the Report of the Commission appointed to
inquire into sentences passed under martial law in South Africa was issued on Monday. The Commissioners (Lord Alverstone, Mr. Justice Bigham, and Sir John Ardagh) having recited the terms of reference, state that 794 cases of penal servitude and imprisonment and of fines unpaid were submitted to them,-721 in Cape Colony, 59 in the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, and 14 in Natal. These are dealt with in three separate schedules, full particulars being given in each case. The great majority of the Cape Colony cases consist of single or combined cases of high treason, murder, attempted murder, and marauding, and in a great number of cases the death penalty had already been commuted by Lord Kitchener, long terms of imprisonment shortened, and fines reduced. The Commissioners have
Icarried this process a good deal further. In no fewer than 119 cases in the Colony they have ordered the immediate release of the prisoners, in the great majority of life sentences they have reduced the term of imprisonment to two or three years, and the other punishments are dealt with in the same spirit. Of the 59 cases in the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, 25 relate to natives, and here, as in the Natal cases, the reductions of the sentences are fewer.
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