§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the number of cases in which whipping is awarded as a judicial punishment in India, amounting in 1878 to 75,223, in 1897 to 64,087, and in 1900 to 45,054, and to the fact that this punishment is invariably inflicted in public with a rattan or cane over the bare buttocks; and whether, having regard to the general feeling in India on the subject, and to the abuses attending on whipping as a judicial penalty, he will address the Government of India with a view to the elimination of this punishment from the criminal code of the country, except in cases where the offender is guilty of gross and violent crime against the person.
§ MR. MORLEYThis subject was brought to my attention some time ago, and I have addressed a despatch to the Government of India upon the subject.