§ *MR. REESI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he can communicate to the House any information regarding the bomb outrage in Behar; whether this occurrence is due to the sense of impunity in respect of assaults upon Europeans engendered by the decision of the Calcutta High Court in the case of the murder of Mr. Bloomfield by a gang of coolies in the same province; and whether he can give any information regarding the discovery of a bomb manufactory in Calcutta.
§ MR. BUCHANANAs regards the main facts of this deplorable outrage, the Government of India's telegrams to the Secretary of State do not contain any further information than the reports which have appeared in the newspapers. One of the perpetrators of the crime has been arrested and has made a full confession, while another shot himself to avoid arrest. The Secretary of State sees no reason to connect the commission of an outrage of this kind with any feeling or consideration such as the hon. Member mentions. The Government of India have reported that bombs and other explosives have been seized at Calcutta and that numerous arrests have been made, but the Secretary of State is not at present in a position to give detailed information.
§ *MR. REESIs it not a fact that the judgment of the High Court in the Bloomfield case laid it down that no member of a gang of coolies who beat Mr. Bloomfield to death was guilty of murder unless it could be proved against him that his individual blow was sufficient to cause death, and whether such a judgment should not come under the review of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council?
§ MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)Does the hon. Gentleman consider that the flogging of students had anything to do with this bomb outrage?
[No Answer was returned.]