§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for India, What punishments, if any, have been inflicted upon the authorities responsible for the excessive mortality in the gaols of Bengal, through deficient diet, during the year 1879 and part of the year 1880?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONSir, no punishment has been inflicted, so far as I am aware, upon anyone in 479 respect of the great mortality in the gaols in Bengal in 1879–80. I have never denied that there was a very great mortality during the period referred to, not only in Bengal, but in other Provinces. At first it was believed by many persons, including the Lieutenant Governor and the Inspector General of Gaols of Bengal, that the increased mortality was mainly caused by the reduced scale of diet introduced in March, 1879. The question, however, is an exceedingly difficult one. It has been engaging the anxious attention of the authorities in India as well as in this country, and further inquiries show that it is far from clear that the reduced diet had anything to do with the increase which occurred in the rate of mortality; but, whatever may have been its effect, the reduction of the scale of diet was on the recommendation of a Committee, and was not the act of any individual official. The Government of India, having gone very fully into the subject, transmitted, in February last, their despatch upon it. They are of opinion that there are good grounds for the conclusion that the connection between the mortality and the reduced diet has been too hastily assumed, and that there is no reason to believe that it was because they were insufficiently fed that the prisoners anywhere died in excess numbers in 1879; and they attribute the rise in the death-rate mainly to influences affecting the general population of the country. They think that the reduced rate of diet may possibly be susceptible of improvement in detail, but that, when compared with the scales which have been found to answer well in English prisons, it cannot be considered deficient to such an extent as to have been, in any appreciable degree, a cause of mortality. If the hon. Member likes to move for the Correspondence, I shall have no objection to give it as an unopposed Return.
§ MR. O'DONNELLasked whether, since there had been an improvement in the diet, the rate of mortality had not sunk; also, whether any punishment had been awarded for the excessive floggings inflicted on prisoners while they were under an almost starvation scale of diet?
THE MARQUESS OF HABTINGTONI am happy to say that there has been a very great diminution in the rate of mortality, and certainly it has taken 480 place since the alteration was made in the scale of diet. But, as I have said, the Government of India is not satisfied that the increased rate of mortality was caused by the reduced scale of diet. With regard to the punishment inflicted on prisoners, that has also been carefully inquired into, and orders have been issued on the subject.
§ MR. O'DONNELLgave Notice that on going into Committee of Supply he would call attention to the flogging of 11,000 prisoners in the gaols of Bengal between the 1st of January, 1879, and the 81st of March, 1880, almost exclusively on charges of short work, although the scale of diet was admitted to be insufficient to support healthy life, and although many hundreds of prisoners died of starvation and starvation diseases; and that he would move that such flogging, under the circumstances, was brutal, inhuman, and criminal, and that the appointment to the Indian Council of Sir Ashley Eden, late Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, was a condonation of maladministration which was calculated to discredit good government in India. He also appealed to the noble Marquess to afford him any opportunity in his power for a thorough examination of that most serious question.