§ SIR ELLIS ASHMEAD-BARTLETTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can give the House any information as to the 1114 recent disturbances at Chitpur, and especially as to the losses among the police?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (LORD GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingI have received the following telegrams from the Government of India:—
From Viceroy, July 1, 1897.Riot in Calcutta due to possession being taken by estate of Hindu, under orders of Court, of land alleged, it is said falsely, to contain mosque. Monday, police assisted in giving possession. Tuesday, 2,000 low class Mahomedans assembled to rebuild building alleged to be mosque dispersed by police, and 70 arrests made on Wednesday morning. Midday Wednesday rioters re-assembled and attacked municipal pumping station in the neighbourhood; dispersed by police and military. Encounters between police and mobs in different places on Thursday, in which eight rioters reported killed and many wounded. Europeans attacked in places by rioters and some reported injured. No shots tired by military. Rioters quiet Friday and Saturday, and leading Mahomedans reported to be desirous effecting compromise about land.From Viceroy, July 5, 1897.—"Calcutta quiet Sunday.Mr. Stevens, the Acting Lieutenant Governor, who was in Behar at the time of the outbreak, returned to Calcutta yesterday evening. The Government of India are of opinion that Mr. James, the new Commissioner of Police, acted "with promptitude and judgment." The Government consider the outbreak purely local, and the accounts of it are exaggerated. [Cheers.]