INDIAN RISING.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1919, Page 5

INDIAN RISING.

A MUTINY FEARED. INDIANS SHOT DOWN IN HUNDREDS By Telegraph —Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 15, 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 17. The evidence before the Commission that is enquiring at Lahore into the Amritsar risings in April is causing a sensation among the public. It appears that a general rising was threatened in the Punjab, recalling the Indian Mutiny.

General Dyer, commanding the Loyalist troops, ordered indiscriminate shooting, with the result that five hundred natives were killed and fifteen hundred wounded. The Punjab outrages include the cutting of the telegraph wires, burning three bank officials, the murder of a railway guard, burning the town hall and public offices at Amritsar. General Dyer, in his evidence, stated that when he found his orders disobeyed, liq. had to do something strong. "I shot well and strongly 1650 rounds, lasting ten minutes. The crowd had defied the law. No middle course was'possible, so we fired until we ran out of ammunition."

Asked if the idea was to strike terror General Dyer said: "I did not intend frightfulness, but had to give them a leason." He thought, from a military point of view, the shooting would make the widest impression in the Punjab. The Lieutenant-Governor wired approving of his action. Miss Sherwood, a missionary, whilst cycling, had been beaten with stickß and stones, and left for dead. General Dyer said: "We look upon women as sacred. Therefore I ordered the street to be picketed from six in the morning until eight in the evening. No llndian was allowed to pass in except by crawling on his hands and knees." He merely wanted to keep the place sacred. — United Service.