§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)I bog to ask the Secretary of State for India whether there is any source of information which directly connects Lala Lajpat Rai with allegations imputing the poisoning of wells and streams to the Government.
§ MR. MORLEYI am not aware of any such information, nor has the statement, so far as I know, been made that Lajpat Rai is connected with the allegations referred to.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)For what crime has this gentleman been arrested and deported?
§ MR. MORLEYI cannot say.
§ SIR H. COTTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can specify any of the speeches of Lala Lajpat Rai which are greatly dominated by sedition and were published broadcast, even on the floor of this House.
§ MR. MORLEYThe hon. Member's Question is based on an inaccurate report of what I said. As reported by the Morning Post, my words were:—
I will not publish broadcast on the floor of this House language of the kind used by Ajit Singh, which can be reproduced afterwards with perfect impunity and scattered all over India. These malicious incitements to revolt I do not think I can be an instrument in disseminating.This undoubtedly correctly represents the sense of what I said.
§ SIR H. COTTONMay I assume that the right hon. Gentleman did not state, as reported in The Times, that the speeches of Lala Lajpat Rai were greatly dominated by sedition, and were published broadcast, even on the floor of this House?
§ MR. MORLEYI wish the right hon. Gentleman to understand that these are the words that I used. I will not go beyond that.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)asked whether the right hon. Gentleman could now give the House a full list of those arrested in this summary way, and state their places of detention and the manner in which they were being treated. Were they being treated as first-class misdemeanants?
§ MR. MORLEYI think the hon. Member will see that that long and intricate Question requires notice.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMONDsaid he had asked the same Question some time ago.
§ MR. MORLEYI do not see how the Question arises out of the Question on the Paper, and I decline respectfully to answer it.
§ MR. WILLIAM REDMONDasked whether the right hon. Gentleman could say whether these gentlemen were treated in the ordinary way as political prisoners or not.
§ MR. LUPTONasked whether they were to understand that Lala Lajpat Rai had not uttered any seditious speeches, nor suggested that the Government poisoned wells.
§ MR. MORLEYI have stated my view of these transactions. I do not quarrel with these Questions, but they do not arise out of the Question on the Paper.