Maltreatment of Prisoners of War

The claimant was an Imperial soldier who came to Canada to reside in May, 1929. He was with the First Royal Welsh Fusiliers and was wounded and taken prisoner, October 30, 1914. A German N.C.O. struck him with the butt of a rifle breaking his right shoulder. He was kicked into camp and upon complaint to the commandant, was struck down again by the guard. He received no treat­ment for his injury and is not in receipt of an Imperial pension. He is married and has three children. He appeared before me at Vancouver January 21, 1931, and upon hearing from him of the date of his arrival in Canada, several years after the close of the war, I advised him that he could not be considered as a Canadian and that his only recourse would be to the British authorities.

As pointed out above, I do not consider that this Commission has jurisdiction to entertain the claim. The date constitutive of jurisdiction, in civilian cases, has been fixed as January 10, 1920, date of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. I would propose to adopt the same principle in dealing with cases of alleged maltreatment whilst a prisoner of war. Reserving to claimant all other recourses and without deciding the case upon, its merits, I must, therefore, disallow the claim in so far as this Commission is concerned.

ERROL M. McDOUGALL,

Commissioner,

OTTAWA, December 4, 1931.

Originally printed on page 31 of the report