MURDER TRIALS IN INDIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1228, 2 April 1914, Page 4

MURDER TRIALS IN INDIA.

.PRISONERS HANGED AFTER ACljl ITT.M,.

Following on correspondence between .Mr Swilt .Mae Neill. M.i’.. and Mr Montagu. Under Secretary tor India, the former has sent to the Press what, lie describes ns a ".startling revelation with retorenw' to murder trials in India. The Indian Government- lias the power to appeal against orders of ae(jiiital made in murder trials in which natives am accused, and Air Mae Neill lias boon furnished with an official return. giving the following facts for ten years (191)2-11): — Number of east's in which the Government appealed against acquittal on murder charges 28-1 Number of appeals allowed ... Jo? Convicted ol capital olicnce, ... 89 Sentenced to death ... ... 2 1 One of the death .sentences was eventually commuted by a local Governor to transportation tor life. Air Mae Neill says he asked for the return in the House of (.‘ominous in July. Mr Aloiitagn received the return from Simla, on October IS, and lorwardcd it to .Mr AlacNeill on November 20. Commenting on I hose dates, Mr MaeN’eill says in a letter to Mr Montagu;— "The delay in lorwarding to me this report, having regard to its startling revelations. 1 understand and appreciate. Von were probably moved by feelings similar to my own. for. with a knowledge not of very special character yon possess of the intensity ol Indian unrest, of which anyone moderately conversant- with public affairs is seized. 1 have tor some time hesitated as to the publication of this shocking document which f now give to the Press.” Afr AlacNeill proceeds to remark that the retrial of anyone after an acquittal on a criminal charge, not to say a capital charge', is absolutely unthinkable. The notion is abhorrent to the genius of Knglish Jurisprudence ; so much so, that, in Kngland at least, alter two trials on a criminal charge which result in disagreements ol Juries, the prosecution is, according to the usual practice, dropped by the entering of a nolle prosequi on the part ol the'Crown. ‘‘On the whole, the reflection Is not pleasant I hat with respect to these twenty-six individuals, who, having been acquitted of murder, were retried heean.se they were natives convicted and executed, their executions, had they taken place in these countries, would have been wilful murders instead of the. carrying out of the law—wilful murders for which everyone concerned in them. Judicially or ministerially, would have been guilty of wilful murder, either as a principal in tho first degree, a principal in the second degree, or an accessory before the fact. In such a condition of tilings does not tho sellapproval of some of the gentlemen to whom the government and administration of India are entrusted, savour albeit unconsciously of hypocrisy I'”