§ MR. SCOTT (Ashton-under-Lyne)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that Lala Lajpat Rai has for many years devoted his time and private means to social and religious reforms, and that during the famine of 1900 he exerted himself to relieve distress; and, if so, whether he can point to anything in this gentleman's antecedents to justify his being regarded as a danger to the State.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. MORLEY, Montrose Burghs)It may be quite true that Lala Lajpat Rai may have done all that my hon. friend says, but I think he will see that he cannot on that account expect immunity from the consequences of actions which, at a later stage, constituted him a danger to the State.
§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)asked whether Lajpat Rai had made only two political speeches in the Punjab during this year, and that in neither of those speeches was there anything of a seditious character.
§ MR. MORLEYasked for notice of the Question.
§ MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)Is there not a greater danger to the
† See (4) Debates, clxxv., 287.1132 State in stopping leaders of the people from expressing the desires of the people by sending them to gaol than in leaving them free to express the views of the people?
§ *MR. SPEAKERThat is a matter of opinion.