§ SIR H. COTTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the record famine years in India of recent times, viz. 1878, 1897, and 1900, are also the years in which the greatest number of judicial sentences for whipping were inflicted, amounting to 75,223, 64,087, and 45,054 respectively; whether the marked increase of whipping during these years was due to the infliction of that punishment for petty cases of theft arising out of poverty and destitution; and whether, having regard to the fact that, in the present year, conditions of scarcity accompanied by much sickness 857 have arisen, he will issue instructions to the Government of India which shall ensure that the example of previous famine years shall not he followed in the present year in respect of the infliction of whipping as a punishment for petty theft.
§ MR. MORLEYI am aware that sentences of whipping have been more numerous, as theft has been more prevalent, in years of scarcity and distress; but at the same time I cannot doubt that due allowance is, and will be, made by magistrates for the effects of poverty and destitution, and I do not think it necessary to issue special instructions in the sense suggested in advance of the proposed amendment of the law as to whipping, which I have asked the Government of India to carry forward with all possible despatch.
§ MR. REES (Montgomery Boroughs)May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the issue of such instructions would not be a conspicuous example of interference of Executive with judicial functions, to which the Hindoo Congress so strongly and properly objects?
§ MR. MORLEYI think it would.