There was no doubt that Ernst Ellert, in the form of the Druuf scientist Onot, would have been able to do this together with the alleged deserters.

A British party boarded his ship and took away four alleged deserters.

Even in the war's final days, with the Allied armies just a few streets away, the regime's agents were hanging alleged deserters and shooting anyone who failed to display sufficient confidence in victory.

He requested that the penalty as to the alleged deserters' families be removed, and Emperor Gaozong agreed.

Can Government really mean to give that scoundrel Bonaparte a respite, merely to recover a few alleged deserters - who, by definition, are unwilling to serve - and to gratify an old ignoble spite?

One reason for this, Oram suggests, is that "the court martials may at such times have adopted a harsher line with alleged deserters, using the death sentence as a deterrent to prevent any evasion of front line duties."