DR. RUTHERFORDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he will give the House the names of those who have been arrested and imprisoned without trial in India, the period of their detention, the charges upon which they are confined, and which of them, if any, have been released; and whether he proposes to release the others in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Habeas Corpus.
§ MR. MORLEYIt would be impossible, without long inquiry, to give the names of all the persons who during the last eighty-nine years have been arrested and imprisoned under the Regulations of 1818, 1819, and 1827. The persons now in prison are ten in number, of whom five are not British subjects, and four are Moplahs indicated in the Moplah outbreak in 1894. If my hon. friend will come to my room presently, I will give him the list of names. I gave, on Monday, the considerations which prevented His Majesty's Government from repealing or annulling those Regulations; the same considerations prevent me from ordering the release of any of the persons now imprisoned under them.
§ MR. O'GRADY (Leeds, E.)Is it not the fact that the Habeas Corpus Act is suspended over all India, or at least in some of the provinces?
§ MR. MORLEYThere is no suspension of the Act beyond the implied suspen- 950 sion under the Regulations I have mentioned.
§ MR. O'GRADYIs there any truth in the statement that bodies of stalwart rustics armed with bludgeons are moving into Lahore? If so, what is the reason and why are they gathered in this manner. Has this statement anything to do with the large number of troops despatched to Lahore? And may I ask whether the Government intend to prevent such misleading statements being supplied to the Press at home by a well-known agency?
§ MR MORLEYI have received no official information with regard to the very striking allegation as to the stalwart rustics mentioned by my hon. friend. The statement published has no connection with the large number of troops despatched to Lahore. That was a proceeding taken on grounds of its own. When my hon. friend asks me whether I intend to prevent misleading statements being supplied to the Press, I should have thought he was the last man to invite me to take up the duty of Press censor. At the same time, I agree that it is deplorable that wild rumours, for many of which there is no foundation whatever, are so freely and disadvantageously circulated.
§ MR. O'GRADYDoes not the right hon. Gentleman think it desirable, in view of the grave state of unrest in India, that a certain agency should be muzzled?
§ MR. MORLEYI feel sure that if I were, under the Regulation of 1818, to muzzle an agency in India and to try to muzzle it in this country, my hon. friend would be the first to complain.