HC Deb 05 February 1878 vol 237 cc1053-4
MR. O'DONNELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been called to a Resolution moved by the present Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, the Honourable Ashley Eden, relating to the Bengal Police Report for 1877, which described the system of police and preventive imprisonment established by order of Sir Richard Temple, the then Lieutenant Governor, in November, 1875, as "an uncontrolled and fearful engine of oppression," by which "a vast amount of bitter wrong and oppression has been inflicted upon the people," and whose "result has been more demoralising to the lower classes than even the continuance of serious crime could be;" whether the present Lieutenant Governor of Bengal has not stated that, "looking at the vast number of false cases established over Bengal," and "from an examination of some cases which have come before him," he has reason to fear "that very many of the persons convicted wore really innocent;" and, whether, if this be so, the Governor General, Lord Lytton, has taken any measures to supervise such an abuse of power?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON,

in reply, said, he had read a resolution moved by the present Lieutenant Governor of Bengal animadverting in strong terms, not on anything which Sir Richard Temple had done, but on the misconduct of a large section of the Native police of Bengal. This was not the first occasion upon which their conduct had been unfavourably noticed, for last year Sir Richard Temple commented upon the lamentable amount of suffering and wrong which had been caused by them, in reference to the number of arrests made on insufficient evidence. The pith of the resolution was to the effect that a lamentable amount of suffering and wrong had been caused by the vast number of false charges instituted all over Bengal, and that Mr. Eden was determined that this fearful oppression should not be left uncontrolled in the hands of the police, but should be used only under the most effectual safeguards. The administration of the police force in Bengal was primarily in the hands of the Government there, and no doubt Mr. Eden would take measures which would prevent the repetition of the acts of oppression to which the hon. Member had directed attention.