India

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 65, 19 March 1915, Page 6

India

SPECIAL WAR LEGISLATION. LOYALTY OF INDIA UNCHALLENGED. Units® Pbebs Association. (Received 11.40 a.m.) Delhi, March 18. Lord Hardinge, in the Council, said that on a previous occasion he had alluded to the desire to avoid any controversial questions. " A number of important measures' were already deferred, and a measure was now being introduced as a precautionary one to ensure that public .peace was not a slur on the people. The Government had informed him that the measure was absolutely necessary to meef possible emergencies. No one was more jealous of the.honour of India and hexreputation, for loyalty. The Viceroy said he was nob disposed to allow the honour of India to be tarnished by the criminal act of a few ill-balanced minds. He preferred to take the Council into his confidence rather than promulgate an ordinance, and he felt confident he would x-eceive their help- and co-operation. Sir Reginald Craddock, in introducing the Bill, congratulated the country. He said the heed for-the Bill had not previously.'been felt, and he emphasised the nature of the ' war. The measure was required in order to arm the military authorities with the special powers which the emergencies of the war might demand, and to nip in the bud the manifestation of lawlessness which were beginning to show themselves. He recognised to the full general loyalty' of the country. ' He alluded to the campaign being engineered on the Pacific coast of America by some deluded men whose minds were poisoned,and who had returned to India dui-ing the last few months, and committed acts of violence. In Bengal, there had been a recrudescence of seditious .activity which had in some cases become daring. Two movements hot unconnected with the western Punjab had been looting and incendiarism, and racial conflicts between the Hindus and Mohammedans, but danger woxxld only be sex-ious if not checked promptly. The Bill was in two parts:-first, it was generally applicable immediately and empowered the Qnve rn o r-Gen er al-i n - Council to issue regulations to ensure the safety of the cpuntry, being modelled on the' English Defence of .the Realm’s Acts ; and second, it permitted the creation of a special tribunal of three Commissioners—all of whom must have the qualification of a sessions judge to hear cases made over to them by the local government, concerning breaches of the regulations under the actr of any offence punishable by transportation, and imprisonment .for seven years. In order that the tribunal should bo final, numerous Indians heartily supported the main principle of the hill, *3Wdi was unanimousTv passed.