A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2176, 15 February 1881, Page 3

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

The “ Bombay Gazette ” contains a statement bo startling as to compel ub unwillingly to refer to a painful episode in cur recent occupation of the Afghan capital. This journal, says the “Pall Mall Gazette,” declares that before Mr Lepel Griffin left India he forwarded a very strong report to the Government of India concerning the executions at Oabul, The tenor of this report, if it be correctly stated, will create so profound a sensation in this oonntry as to compel immediate action on the part of the Home Government. Mr Lepel Griffin, in his report, the “ Bombay Gazette" asserts, plainly says that “a corrupt (native) subordinate was trusted by the generals, and that executions were compassed by this official, who in most oases suborned evidence, and then himself pressed the case against the unfortunate accused. Sirdars who were suspected of possessing wealth are said to have been threatened with the gallows, and on pain of execution made to hand over large sums of money, horses, and jewellery. No man of substance escaped his rapacity. He is believed to have extorted altogether a fabulous sum from his victims.” That is bad enough, but there is worse to follow. The Bombay “ Gazette ” declares that although Mr Lepel Griffin included in his report specific instances of this official’s systematic villainy, and followed them up by a recommendation couched in “ the most emphatic and unqualified terms ” that he should bo tried by law for his crimes, the man has not only not been punished, but is actually at this moment in Government employment. That is to say, that this miscreant, who abused the confidence of General Boberts in order to employ the gallows as an instrument of extorting bribes from vanquished foes, is at this moment employed and paid by the Indian Government, which holds in its hands full proofs of his guilt. Although such a atory cannot be credited, it ought not the less to be authoritatively refuted.