§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydvil)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he has received a Report concerning the conviction of Ramchandra Narayen Mendlik, editor and publisher of the Vihari, who has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment, with a fine of 1,000 rupees, for having published an alleged seditious article; and whether he has seen the article in question, and can state its terms.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe conviction of this editor and the sentence as stated in the Question have been announced in the newspapers, but we have not received any official confirmation. The Secretary of State has seen the substance of the article in question, but I cannot lay it on the Table.
§ MR. KEIR HARDIECan any means be adopted to put the House in possession of information as to the character of the article in question?
§ MR. BUCHANANThe Secretary for State for India has already given a promise that newspaper articles which 350 come under the Press Act will be laid from time to time upon the Table of the House.
§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)Was not the article in this particular case a translation of a piece of poetry by Mazzini written fifty years ago?
§ MR. BUCHANANI am not aware of that, but Mazzini wrote some very strong things.